The Red Shed is the third part of our favourite campaigning comic’s theatrical trilogy, following the much revered Bravo Figaro and Cuckooed. Mark returns to the place where it all began - the Red Shed, a labour club in Wakefield - to celebrate the club’s 50th birthday as he continues his tour in 2017 of yet another award-winning, highly acclaimed performance.

The Shed, home to Mark’s first public performances, is also a home to dissent, to organising and to progressive politics, and so it was here that Mark’s true political prowess began. An iconic and vital place for its patrons, this is where the true meaning of solidarity is found and where you can be part of history and part of the struggle. A south London lad, born to a Thatcherite world of self-employed builders, labourers and tradesman like his father where the individual is key, Wakefield’s alien traditional labour community awoke a new determination in Mark and changed his life forever.

The local council have just abandoned a plan to introduce a PSPO to outlaw begging, and Mark has been cited in a (herm) local newspaper as inciting resistance to the idea. Last time Mark was in Exeter, he lead the audience through the streets and held a ‘lynch mob demo’ outside council buildings, with the crowd carrying pitchforks and flaming torches.

What will happen this time?

Mark Thomas: The Red Shed is at the Corn Exchange on Weds 22nd February. Tickets: 01392 665866 / www.exetercornexchange.co.uk

£17/£13 students & unwaged, not seniors (includes £1.00 booking fee)