A BLACK comedy about murderous intrigue on the set of a hospital TV soap opera brings an eclectic cast to Greenwich theatre next week.

Marlon Brando's Corset features top American comedian and improv maestro Mike McShane, who plays the soap's tyrannical director.

Playing the ill-fated screenwriter is TV presenter, actor and one-man soap opera himself, Les Dennis.

Les recently put the icing on the cake of his own well-publicised personal dramas with his acclaimed self-caricature in Ricky Gervais' BBC comedy Extras.

TV pin-up Jeremy Edwards, veteran of Hollyoaks, Holby City and Celebrity Big Brother, plays the leading man who is hiding a secret.

Written by Guy Jones, the play casts a critical eye over today's celebrity culture.

Mike McShane, speaking from Edinburgh where the play is running during the festival, takes up the story.

"The play centres on the writer, who's caught between a rock and a hard place," he explains. "Between a gambling debt and a looming script deadline for Healing Hands, the soap opera.

"Of the soap's two leading men, one is aggrieved because the other is more of a hunk.

"And of the two leading ladies, one's very respectable while the other's an avaricious power monkey."

Mike says his TV director, Alex Summers, is a Machiavellian character, aggressive in a snide way.

"Everyone thinks they're a victim here, apart from the one who really is a victim. It's that black humour which makes the play work.

"Nasty deeds are done, people come to bad ends and it's very funny."

Kansas-born Mike became a familiar face to British audiences as a regular guest on the Channel 4 improvisation show Who's Line Is It Anyway, hosted by Clive Anderson.

"As the show became more of a hit, it became more exciting and more daunting," he recalls.

"It's nerve-wracking but in a good way. You're going up for a challenge while maintaining your composure all the time."

Mike has a distinguished background in American regional theatre, touring Shakespeare and other classics with top-class thespians such as Annette Benning.

He is enthusiastic about the British theatre scene.

He says: "Regional theatre here is like an amazing warehouse, where you get to work with all these world-class actors. People come and go throughout their careers.

"There's a great tradition of going off to do film and TV and then coming back to the theatre."

Mike, who has made California his home since leaving the army, is considering moving to the UK.

As a comedian, does he find differences between British and American audiences?

"The British aren't so self-congratulatory," he explains. "In the US someone will say to the audience give yourselves a round of applause for being here'.

"In Britain they'd go: Why? We're paying to see you, give yourself a f***ing hand'."

For your local theatre news, visit newsshopper.co.uk/leisure Marlon Brando's Corset September 12 to 30. Greenwich Theatre, Crooms Hill, Greenwich, box office 020 8858 7755.