Joe Orton black comedy Entertaining Mr Sloane can be seen on stage in Welwyn Garden City later this month.

It has been described as “one part Wilde and three parts Satan”.

Its title character has been played by the likes of Malcolm McDowell, Mathew Horne and Adam Ant.

It both scandalised and delighted theatregoers on its opening with an explosive mix of farce, voracious sexuality and violence.

And yet, within a year of its premiere, Entertaining Mr Sloane was being performed around the world, went on to be adapted for film and television and is now recognised as a classic of black comedy.

Now, 50 years after it first shocked audiences, London Classic Theatre is bringing Joe Orton’s earliest play to the Hawthorne Theatre, in Welwyn Garden City, later this month for three nights.

The award-winning company, which last visited Campus West with productions of The Importance of Being Earnest and Equus, celebrate the anniversary by proving that the play has lost none of its power to make an audience gasp or laugh uproariously.

Kath and her elderly father live in a house on the outskirts of a rubbish dump, but their drab existence is interrupted by the arrival of a new lodger, the enigmatic Mr Sloane.

Provocative and sexually ambiguous, Sloane soon has both Kath and her brother, the closeted Ed, competing for his favours.

But behind his nonchalant demeanour lies the heart of a calculating psychopath.

Seduction, blackmail and murder lie waiting in the wings.

One of the most iconic and exciting plays of the 1960s, Entertaining Mr Sloane is a roller coaster ride of fun and depravity.

It may be half a century old, but it is showing none of the rigours of age.

* London Classic Theatre presents Entertaining Mr Sloane by Joe Orton at the Hawthorne Theatre from Thursday, March 27 to Saturday, March 29 at 7.30pm.

Tickets are £20.