One Helluva Life is one helluva show - funny, tragic and with flashes of pure brilliance from the show and its star.

Tom Conti plays American matinee idol John Barrymore. In 1942, he was a wreck of a man, ruined by booze and crippled by the alimony payments for his many wives.

Barrymore had rented a theatre for a night to try to recreate his great classical role of Richard III, a role for which he was ecstatically acclaimed in London and on Broadway in 1930.

With him for the run through he has hired a prompter, never seen on stage until the curtain call but heard throughout.

The play is a tour-de-force performance of a pathetic drunk looking back on life and trying to rekindle the flame.

Conti's performance could have been funny in the way it was when he played the lead role in Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell but here he captures the true pathos and the embarrassment of the drunk.

He is maudlin, does not complete stories and confuses Richard III with Hamlet and Henry V. His attempts to succeed are, at times, so cringe-making, you want to look away.

And yet the script, by William Luce is chock-full of witty and wicked one-liners such as: "For a happy life don't get married in January - nor any other month" and "I have enough money to last the rest of my life - so long as I die today."

Conti performs it all so well, along with the near falls, the staggers, the slurring and the double takes.

He even does some wonderful Shakespeare, cleverly illuminating just how good Barrymore was at the height of his fame.

John Barrymore, younger brother of Ethyl and Lionel Barrymore joined the family business and took on his father's fondness for strong drink.

He was one of the few actors of the silent era to make it and prosper when the talkies came along.

Conti adopts a rather irritating mid-Atlantic accent for the real voice of Barrymore but you forget that when he rages at his life and his losses.

Although bitter at times, this Barrymore is much more of a merry drunk than Barnard.

Bryan Forbes directs with a deft and sure hand, not letting theatricality get in the way in a show that is all about the theatre.

Do go and see this and have a helluva good time.

Tickets cost £13-£22. For further information, call 01273 328488.