PREPARE for some inspired lunacy as Mischief Theatre return to the Lowry, Salford Quays, next week with their latest production, The Comedy About a Bank Robbery.

It is produced by the same team behind the West End hit The Play That Goes Wrong and two festive TV specials including Christmas Carol Goes Wrong.

“This show’s completely different,” said Sean Carey who plays would-be bank robber Sam Monaghan. “The previous productions were all about a drama society trying to put on a performance with disastrous results whereas this show is more in the mode of Airplane or Naked Gun. It’s more of a comedy caper and actually has core of a story to it.”

But before fans of Mischief’s previous work start to panic, Sam reassured them.

“It’s just as funny even though it is completely different. The guys who wrote it are just masters of comedy and for an actor what they have come up with is just a gift.”

Comedy About a Bank Robbery mixes Fifties’ film noir with the madcap antics of some of the silent movies’ major stars such as Buster Keaton.

“You can see certain things which have been inspired by the likes of Keaton and even the Marx Brothers,” said Sean. “With any comedy the secret is in the timing but with this it is just perfectly worked out. You have such confidence in the script that you know in certain places you only need to say one word and the audience will be in uproar - that’s a brilliant feeling.”

Sean’s route to playing a key role in the production is worthy of a play in its own right.

An aspiring actor, he moved to London from his native Ireland three years ago.

“I went to watch The Play That Goes Wrong,” he said. “I didn’t know a thing about it but just found it hysterical, I said ‘that’s one show I’d love to be in’.”

Inspired by what he’d seen Sean managed to get a job front of house at the theatre.

“I was serving ice cream and ripping tickets,” he said. “I knew that I had to understand how the play worked before I ever got a chance to audition for it.”

Through working in the theatre he got to know the cast and by his own admission ‘pestered’ the producers to give him a chance.

“I wore them down eventually. After seven months they auditioned me and I got the role of understudy,” he said.

That meant him having to learn five different parts and be on call for every performance.

“Playing Sam is actually easier,” he said. “I’ve only had one character to learn this time round.”

Sean said that the success of the various Mischief productions is the team work.

“One of the big things that the producers drum into you is to make everyone else look good,” he said. “They will be doing the same for you.

“Also what you learn is never actually try to be funny. The comedy comes from the script. If you try to force the laughs you can sense the audience aren’t reacting as they should. It’s having that confidence to just go with it and the laughs will come.”

Bank Robbery is a highly physical comedy which sees Sean at times dangling from a rope and being thrown around the stage.

“For someone who has been athletically challenged all my life it’s been a whole new experience for me,” he laughed. “But you are so well trained. It’s all about acclimatising to the lunacy.”

The Comedy About a Bank Robbery, the Lowry, Salford Quays, Tuesday, September 11 to Saturday, September 15. Details from 0843 208 6005 or www.thelowry.com