THE scene is set for another rip snorter of a summer show at the Mercury as a cast of actor musicians take to the stage and the air.

That's because from next Friday, July 28, for the next four weeks, the Colchester theatre is staging J M Barrie's classic story of the boy who never grew up, Peter Pan.

And playing the boy in question is an actor who never really wanted to be an actor when he grew up.

"I wanted to be a painter," Emilio Iannucci smiles, "the only problem was I could never sell any of them. I used to give them away or burn them to free up some more room for other paintings.

"I actually came to drama quite late in life."

But as soon as he did discover theatre, it was like a light had been switched on.

"My friend had set up a drama society at school," he continues, "and he asked me along.

"The first thing we read was Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui and then we took turns directing each other, and I really enjoyed it.

" I remember there was an eye gouging scene and we all thought we probably should learn a bit of stage combat so no one gets hurt."

Thankfully following three years studying at Central School of Speech and Drama in London, and tours with acclaimed children's theatre company, Tall Stories, Emilio is a fully trained killer of pirates and other such nasties, which will come in very useful over the next few weeks.

"In the audition," he adds, "I didn't go for the Disney version.

"I went for the slightly cocky boy who just wants to get on with his life and is annoyed with all the people getting in the way of him having some fun.

"I've done a lot of physical theatre. When you've played an energetic goat more than a hundred times all over the country, like I did with Tall Stories' Snow Dragon, that kind of prepares you for most things.

"Mind you this show has the same energy as that one so it's going to be a lot fun."

Jam packed with all the things you would expect from a trip to Neverland including a flying fairy, Lost Boys, a crocodile that's swallowed a clock and of course the dandiest pirate of the seven seas, Captain James Hook, joining Emilio on stage will be Charlotte Mafham as Wendy and familiar face, Pete Ashmore.

Pete returns to the Mercury after appearances in James and the Giant Peach and last year's Wind in the Willows as the man with the dastardly plan, Captain Hook.

Also in the cast are a band of talented actor-musicians including Nicholas Coutu-Langmead, Alicia McKenzie and Katharine Moraz.

Co-directed by the Mercury's artistic director Daniel Buckroyd and Matthew Cullum who directed Wind in the Willows and James and the Giant Peach, Peter Pan runs at the Mercury Theatre from July 28 to August 26.

For more information, and to buy tickets priced from £12, click here or call 01206 573948.