Rehearsals have commenced for the first production in this year’s Summer Rep play festival.

Paul Taylor Mills will return to the helm of the annual event with another 12 productions starting on June 22 at the Manor Pavilion. The festival will kick off with Ray Cooney’s farce Caught In The Net which follows London taxi driver John Smith who tries to stop his double life from coming out.

Actress Daniele Coombes said: “This is such a funny play. I’m playing Mary, one of the wives, and it’s such a fast paced show. I’m in and out of doors, rolling on the floor and basically having the time of my life. We can’t wait to share this great play with the good folk of Sidmouth.”

Paul Taylor Mills added: “Ray Cooney is a playwright that we often turn to for our Summer Seasons. He has been called ‘the master of English farce’ and he always delivers. The Sidmouth audience love his plays and the crazy situations that he writes about. We can’t wait to get started. It’s so rewarding to have the theatre full of laughter.”

This year’s festival features:

Thursday, June 22 to Wednesday June 28, Caught in the Net by Ray Cooney

• Thursday, June 29 to Wednesday July 5: Murder in Company by Philip King and John Bolland

• Thursday, July 6 to Wednesday, July 12: The Odd Couple by Neil Simon

• Thursday, July 12 to Wednesday, July 19: Ladies in Lavender by Sean McKenna based on the screenplay by Charles Dance

• Thursday, July 20 to Wednesday, July 26: Dial M for Murder by Frederick Knott

• Thursday, July 27 to Wednesday, August 2: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

• Thursday, August 3 and Friday, August 4, Saturday, August 12 to Wednesday, August 16: The Birds by Conor McPherson

• Thursday, August 17 to Wednesday, August 23: Relative Values by Noel Coward

• Thursday, August 24 to Wednesday, August 30: Birthday Suite by Robin Hawdon

• Thursday, August 31 to Wednesday, September 6: Absent Friends by Alan Ayckbourn

• Thursday, September 7 to Wednesday, September 13: Hobson’s Choice by Harold Brighouse