JOSH Neary takes the role of writer Franz Kafka in the latest production by the Wilmslow Green Room Society.

Kafka’s Dick was written by Alan Bennett in 1986, and looks at the nature of fame and how reputation is gained.

The play is being staged at the Wilmslow Green Room Theatre in Chapel Street, Wilmslow, from October 7 to 14, and tickets go on sale next month.

The play features a cast of six, with Ewan Henderson as Brod, Rani Jackson playing Linda, Bryan Higgins as Father, Ian McBridge in the role of Sydney and Paul Reid as Hermann.

“Yorkshire insurance salesman Sydney likes to think of himself as an intellectual,” said a member of the company.

“He knows that WH Auden never wore underpants, but he doesn't bother himself with the poetry.

“His hero is Franz Kafka, perhaps because Kafka was also an insurance salesman.

“But he's far more interested in Franz's gloomy relationship with his overbearing father, Hermann, than he is in the novels.

“Sydney and his much-belittled wife, Linda, are about to get a first-hand lesson in literary criticism and the surreal with the arrival, in their 1980s suburban living room, of the long-dead Kafka and his friend Max Brod, hotly pursued by Hermann.

“On his deathbed Kafka got Brod, then the famous one of the pair, to agree to destroy all his stories, novels and letters.

“Brod reneged on the promise and published. Will he be damned when Kafka finds out?

“Or will Kafka be grateful that Brod has ensured his reputation as one of the 20th century's greatest writers?”

The production is being directed by John Chidgey, and tickets are available for non-members from September 4 and members from September 11.

The play is being performed at 7.45pm, and for tickets call the ticket line on 01625 540933.

The production is being sponsored by Chapel Interiors, and the company’s subsequent plays are The Winter’s Tale, which is being staged from December 2 to 9 and Be My Baby, which runs from January 27 to February 3, 2018.

Wilmslow Green Room Society was founded in 1924, and for more details about the company visit wgrsoc.org.uk Cap Ian Tyler and Tim Cooper from Around The World in Eighty Days, which was staged by the company this summer