The action is set in France (of course!) in the house of Orgon, a French aristocrat who lives with his wife Elmire and their daughter Marianne and son. Orgon is totally taken in by Tartuffe a monk who professes to be one of the most pious people in the land. Orgon is so enamoured of him that he offers Tartuffe Marianne's hand in marriage, thus preventing her from marrying Valere, the man of her dreams.

In true dramatic style, Tartuffe is not what he seems and it becomes clear that he is much more interested in seducing Elmire and getting his hands on Orgon's money than serving the church. Elmire sets a trap for him which he falls into and his secret is revealed.

Now, I realise that anything I say about this production will seem biased, but it was truly fantastic, the entire cast that is, not just Stephen. Maria Charles kicks off the proceedings with a lecture to her entire family that has the audience in stitches, Isla Blair is charming as Elmire and Jack Ellis and Simon Williams are convincingly pompous.

However, best performance has to go to Steve's facial expressions which, as usual, steal the show. In a flash he changes from humble, to hurt to slimey, self-satisfied and back to humble. At every performance I saw, he converted an entire audience of ardent theatre-goers and had them all rolling around in the aisles! At the time of writing, it is heading to Bath towards the last leg of the tour, so catch it if you can!