Alan Ayckbourn's 69th play Improbable Fiction is a hilarious comedy featuring an amateur writing group, where everyone has at least one book in them, but is having problems getting it out.

Chairman Arnold Hassock considers that The Pendon Writers' Circle is in a bit of a rut. At the December meeting he throws down a challenge to the members: "If you feel you are a writer, if you deep down believe you are a writer, then for goodness sake get on with the writing".

Unfortunately, be it technical writing, science fiction, Victorian romance, murder/mystery or children's stories, the motley group of would-be authors gathered in Arnold's house, whilst happy to talk about the creative process, are more familiar with writers' block than flowing prose.

With personalities clashing as loudly as the thunder outside, the meeting winds up, but as the storm suddenly plunges the house into darkness, so Arnold and the departing authors are plunged into their own fantastical, imaginary worlds. In a stunning second act, the audience is whirled through a hilarious mix of word play, literary genres, clever pastiche and subplots until one is indeed left thinking:

If this were played upon a stage now I would condemn it as an improbable fiction.

(Twelfth Night Act 3 Scene 4)