SATIRE, comedy, pathos and storytelling come to Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre this week, with a raft of plays and performances, offering something for all dramatic tastes.

The theatre’s busy week starts with Laurielorry Theatre Company’s presentation of a comedy play, Gusset, showing today.

The tale centres on character Pauline Potter, whose gusset is her guiding light and her epicentre. She has worked in a factory for 20 years as a ‘floater’, literally floating from one job to another. Feeling trapped and desperate to get out, she is learning to be a writer at night school and with her new book, Gusset Path to Life, anything is possible.

Laurielorry is a one-woman theatre company, formed in 1999 by Elaine Pantling. Her aim is to take ‘everydayness’ and transform it into a profound and extraordinary performed situation. She explores the comedic possibilities in performance to expose humour and pathos that not only enlightens and entertains, but communicates directly with the audience.

On Friday, Victor Spinetti – award winning actor, writer and raconteur – unlocks his very private diary to unleash revelations about his time working with the likes of The Beatles, Peter Sellers, Sean Connery, Elizabeth Taylor, Salvador Dali, Marlene Dietrich, Mick Jagger, Laurence Olivier, Joan Littlewood, Keith Richards, Princess Margaret and many others.

Finally, Northern Broadsides brings Nobel prize-winning playwright Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist to the Stephen Joseph Theatre from November 24-29.

This satirical, comedic exposé of police corruption has resonated with audiences throughout the world, whether in apartheid South Africa or Ceausescu’s Romania, which probably explains why it is one of the most performed contemporary plays in the world. It tells the true story of an Italian anarchist who mysteriously fell to his death from the window of a police station. The ‘Maniac’ investigates, and in doing so reveals the idiocy of lies spun by officialdom.

This new 2008 version, written for a modern audience, bristles with sharply observed satire. Conrad Nelson flexes his directorial muscle for the fourth time with the company and is rapidly developing a following for his combined skills of original music composition, clarity of direction and a keen ear for the rhythms and poetry of contemporary drama.

Northern Broadsides has a direct style in approaching texts, whether modern or classic, and is acclaimed for high energy and dynamic delivery, rooted in the rhythms and cadences of the northern voice.

Tickets for Accidental Death of an Anarchist cost between £9 and £18.50; those for Gusset cost between £10 and £14; and for Victor Spinetti cost between £10 and £14. Phone the box office on 01723 370541 or book online at www.sjt.uk.com