SUMMER may be with us, but the Chesil Theatre is already thinking ahead to its October production of Sleuth, an award-winning comedy thriller by Anthony Shaffer.

A reading of the play takes place tomorrow at 7.30pm with auditions on Sunday and Monday at 7.30pm.

Newcomers are always welcome and are encouraged to turn up via the stage door at the theatre in Winchester.

Sleuth has all the ingredients of a top-class thriller – a plot that twists and turns with fiendish cunning. It is a dramatic study of the sexual conflict and jealousy between an older man and his younger rival.

There are two male parts to audition for.

Andrew Wyke is a tallish, fleshy man of 57. He is wealthy and has been an extremely successful writer of crime fiction.

He is theatrical and an obsessive games player. He is proud, arrogant, manipulative, two-faced and impotent.

Milo Tindle is the lover of Andrew Wyke’s wife, Marguerite. He is aged 35, medium height and slim build. The son of a half- Jewish Italian watchmaker and English mother, there is a touch of the Mediterranean about him. He is a travel agent and is not well-off.

He dresses with obsessive neatness and is genuinely devoted to Marguerite.

He is alert, wary, vital, bright and, ultimately, clever and cunning.

Director Ros Liddiard said: “This is a wonderful play with lively dialogue full of wit.

“The plot is fast-paced and the audience can expect the unexpected. It is a play that actors can have lots of fun with and I cannot wait to get started on the rehearsals.

“It will also have a broad appeal to audiences of all ages and will perhaps be remembered by many people as a film starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine.”

The play will be performed from October 4 to 11.