"Gerald Popkiss is a silly ass!" laughs Ben Davies, describing the character he plays in Rookery Nook. "He's very English and impractical but very confident. He says what he thinks and this is what leads him into trouble."

The play, written in 1926, sees the newly-married Popkiss arrive at Rookery Nook without his wife, who has been forced to stay with her ailing mother.

When a beautiful woman wearing only her pink silk pyjamas arrives and begs Popkiss to let her stay he promises to help her. The only problem is he must not let Mrs Leverett, the meddling maid know of this unchaperoned guest.

"It's a very quick, English farce in which everything that can go wrong does go wrong," says Davies.

"It's set in the Twenties and everything is taken at face value. A young woman was not allowed to be alone with a man in his house, especially if he was married. The play is all about the surface of things and what's going on underneath."

Davies, now a Brighton resident, used to live in Devon before moving to Lewes nine years ago.

After work at Glyndebourne Opera House he studied drama for three years and trained with the National Youth Theatre.

"For a young actor, doing English farce is quite rare," he says. "It's really fun and challenging because it's so quick. The play is demanding, both physically and mentally, due to the speed of the delivery.

"Each night you have to come on with energy and move, lift up and grab the audience. If you don't, it takes a while to get into the flow of the comedy."