Fooling about in Greenwich

If your quest for fine jokes has ever seen you leave the action-packed confines of W1 and wind up in darkest Greenwich, chances are you've ended up at legendary bearpit Up The Creek.

But this week the area has somewhere slightly more civilised to head to - April Fools Comedy Week at Greenwich Theatre. Though the theatre is no stranger to hosting themed festivals, this is the first time it has devoted a week entirely to giggles.

'We've had Sex Week, Eccentric Week, Satire Week,' explains Greenwich's jolly executive director Hilary Strong. 'Then we'd got to the point where we were deciding between Pets' Week and Gardening Week - really scraping the bottom of the barrel. Each festival had a mix of different arts but with a predominant comedy bent, so we decided to consolidate what was already developing.'

The line-up is thick with experience, brains and, um, musical instruments. There's feisty Gina Yashere, satirical lounge duo Kit And The Widow, laid-back guitar-wielding comic Rob Deering, plus Jim TavarÈ - comic, double bass player and also known as 'the midget with the violin'.

There are also bright sparks such as Marcus Brigstocke and Bafta nominee and author Mark Steel (a favourite of Strong's), whose latest show weaves his socially conscious humour into the events of revolutionary France.

'We've gone for an intelligent line-up - there's a real Radio 4 feel about it,' explains Strong. 'I think Greenwich residents like their thoughtful comics, so you have to play to your strengths.'

Strong is hoping that Greenwich Theatre can become another haunt for comics who want to perform somewhere more theatrical and formal than a club or boozer.

Steel acknowledges that this is the right sort of home for his latest offering: 'I'm not sure Battersea's Jongleurs would appreciate me turning up and doing two hours on the French Revolution to a party of 40 girls from Alliance & Leicester on a hen night.'

But he's still very much a fan of the more traditional circuit, where unpredictability and the short, sharp, 20-minute set is king. 'An informal club atmosphere makes it more likely something exciting will happen, such as a member of the audience going berserk with a fire extinguisher or something,' he states. 'These incidents tend to be the ones comics love.'

OK, so April Fools Comedy Week is unlikely to be a breeding ground for anarchy. But there'll still be plenty to enjoy from the seasoned bill.