A VICAR from Chiswick steps into his boss’s shoes next week when he plays God in a production of John Milton’s poem Paradise Lost.

The Reverend Kevin Morris, vicar of St Michael & All Angels Church, appears in the epic tale of the battle between God and Satan, and the ejection of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, staged at the church on Bath Road on September 20.

Sarah Lenton, one of the directors and a sub-deacon at St Michael’s felt the work was as relevant as ever: ‘‘It is by any standards a huge, heroic theme, dealing with the cosmic clash between good and evil. For a generation brought up on epic themes such as Lord of the Rings, this poem will unfold as clearly and heart-breakingly as Milton could have wished.

"Milton was a born dramatist and the poem turns into a play astonishingly well. The clash, attraction, repulsion and tragedy of the three central characters - Satan, Adam and Eve - is the very stuff of drama."

Kate Odey, best-known as Commander Melissa Clark in ITV’s London’s Burning, will play Eve, and Giles Taylor, from the BBC’s Wycliffe and Scarlet & Black, will play Adam. Both have performed with the RSC and many other theatrical productions and Kate is now rehearsing the new Philip Pulman Trilogy at the Royal National Theatre. Callum Coates, from Shakespeare’s Globe and the Royal Opera House, will play Satan, while the narrator will be Chiswick actor John Rowe, who was recently on television in The Lost Prince and Foyle’s War.

Paradise Lost has been adapted for the stage by Sarah Lenton, and Rosemary Green, Head of English at Graveney School in Tooting, both ex-students of Chiswick County Grammar School for Girls.

Sarah also directs productions at the Linbury Studio Theatre at the Royal Opera House, where she writes and lectures, she has been a professional cartoonist, and speaks at the monthly Family Service at St Michael’s.

The performance starts at 7.30pm. Tickets are £7.50, or £5 for full-time students and can be ordered in advance, enclosing an SAE and cheque payable to St Michael & All Angels, from the Box Office c/o The Parish Office, St Michael and All Angels, Priory Avenue, W4 1TX or via e-mail at mower@lineone.net Sarah added: "We'll be very hard on anyone who touches the apples."