MAY 1 - 6 2006, BATH: From the award-winning writer of the hit film Calendar Girls comes The Safari Party, a deliciously perceptive farce about the conflict between urban perceptions and the reality of the rural idyll.

Tim Firth's new comedy is set in the Cheshire countryside, a world of barn conversions and the heritage industry. Here three households are holding a "safari party" a dinner party where guests move from house to house for each course.

However, as well as sharing the meal farmers' boys Daniel and Adam, antiques dealer Inga and snobbish, upwardly mobile townies Lol and Esther have each shared ownership of a certain table. As the evening progresses, some shocking layers of truth and deception are revealed about how car boot sale bargains can mysteriously become exclusive antiques.

The Safari Party stars Christopher Timothy, Sara Crowe, Jack Ryder, David Brown, Helen Noble and Illona Linthwaite. Christopher Timothy is known to millions for his role as James Herriot in the long-running BBC series All Creatures Great and Small and the BBC daily drama series Doctors, which he has also directed.

Jack Ryder is best known for his role as Jamie Mitchell in EastEnders. Sara Crowe has performed at the Theatre Royal in no less than 10 productions. Her most recent visit to Bath was in Lord Arthur Saville's Crime in 2005. She won several awards for her role in Private Lives in the West End including the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress.

David Brown is best known for his role as Adam Morgan in Channel 4's teen drama Hollyoaks, for which he won an award for the most dramatic soap scene at The Soap Awards. Helen Noble played the role of Abby Davies in Hollyoaks for nearly four years.

Since then she has returned to make several guest appearances and co-presented Friends Re-United for Sky TV. Illona Linthwaite has worked extensively with repertory and fringe theatres and has appeared with the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the Welsh National Theatre.