Alan Ayckbourn has done a lot of good things for theatre and his Norman Conquests trilogy is one of his greatest achievement.

From next Tuesday, amateur dramatics group Chelsea Players will be doing the third of those plays, Round and Round the Garden, at Putney Arts Theatre.

"We were looking for a comedy and I think this is one of Britain's funniest," says director and chairwoman Rachel Goldsmith.

"Alan Ayckbourn really knows his comedy.

"On reading them, all the stories stand up on their own quite well and of all of those this is the funniest of the three.

"It just felt right for Putney, for the venue and for the people there really.

"It's just a nice sort of summery feeling and it is right for the time of year for it."

In each of the plays there are only six characters, Norman, his wife Ruth, her brother Reg and his wife Sarah, Ruth's sister Annie, and Tom, Annie's next-door-neighbour.

Each of the plays depicts the characters over the same weekend in a different part of a house.

The first, Table Manners, is set in the dining room, while the second, Living Together is in the living room.

Round and Round the Garden is in the garden and though each play is self-contained and may be watched without knowledge of the other two, some of the scenes overlap and a character's exit from one play corresponds with an entrance in another.

Chelsea Players was formed as an amateur dramatic society in the 1960s and spent 25 years in residence at London's Chelsea Theatre until 2000.

Since then, it has become a touring theatre company and normally puts on at least one play at Putney Arts Theatre a year with others at the Barons Court Theatre in Fulham and Landor Theatre.

Round and Round the Garden, Putney Arts Theatre, Ravenna Road, March 9 to 13, 7.45pm, £10. Call 07506 919227 or visit putneyartstheatre.org.uk