WRITER Charlotte Jones first came to public attention a few years ago with a witty, feminist play.

And the critics judged that her reworking of the Hamlet story in Humble Boy was better still.

It is original, intelligently written, funny, touching and full of the kind of people that theatregoers care about.

As a post-pantomime offering Next Stage is staging the play next week at the Mission Theatre in Corn Street, Bath - conveniently opposite Avon Street car park.

The action is set in a garden in the Cotswolds, recreated in beautiful detail in the theatre.

Felix Humble is an overwrought Cambridge astrophysicist who has returned to the family home for his father's funeral.

His mother is a former bunny girl, furious because Felix has done a runner from the funeral service at which he was supposed to deliver the oration.

It soon transpires that she is having an affair with a randy old goat of a neighbour, George Pye who loathes her son.

Also involved in the action is George's daughter Rosie whom Felix betrayed in love seven years earlier as well as Mercy Lott a neurotic family friend and the play's female Polonius.  Finally, there is Jim the gardener, who isn't quite what he seems.

The Hamlet parallels are cleverly worked in but never prevent Humble Boy from achieving a fully developed life all of its own.

Next Stage is performing the play in the round from Tuesday to Saturday next week at 7.30pm.

For tickets at £9 and £7 concessions call the box office on 428600 or Bath Festivals box office on 463362.

CHRISTOPHER HANSFORD