IT might seem a strange subject for satire but Alistair Beaton is convinced there is a funny side to fracking.

The act of drilling for shale gas, which has enraged and divided communities up and down the land, is the axis of the writer’s new play, directed by Richard Wilson, who played vigilant neighbour Victor Meldrew in One Foot In The Grave.

Called Fracked, with the subheading Please Don’t Mention The F Word, it takes place in the fantasy village of Fenstock, set to be the scene of shale gas drilling. All is going to plan except for a band of protestors, reluctantly led by a retired academic branded a “mad old biddy” by the fracking company’s PR guru.

“Most good satire comes out of a sense of outrage over something appalling being done,” Beaton tells The Guide. “Writing satire lets you express that outrage, but it also makes people laugh.

“It is all-consuming and many of the anti-fracking campaigners are obsessive in real life, but it’s the obsessives who get things done.

“The retired academic Elizabeth (Anne Reid) finds herself radicalised during the play.

“I also have a younger character who I would hardly say I treat reverentially.”

Elizabeth’s reluctant husband is played by James Bolam, with the cast completed by Oliver Chris, Vanessa Emme, Andrea Hart, Freddie Meredith, Sam Otto, Steven Roberts, Michael Simkins and Tristram Wymark.

Bolam’s previous Chichester appearances include Semi-Detached and How To Succeed In Business; his screen credits include, most recently, New Tricks.

Reid has a career in theatre, TV and film, including Last Tango In Halifax, Marchlands, The Mother and Song For Marion. Her most recent stage appearance was in Hedda Gabler at the Old Vic.

Wilson is currently an associate director at Sheffield Theatres, where he is directing a new play called The Nap.

Beaton himself has many credits to his name, including writing for Not The Nine O Clock News and Spitting Image as well as 2010 Bafta-nominated TV drama The Trial Of Tony Blair.

His plays include Feelgood in the West End and the revised version of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at the same theatre in 2012.

Beaton, 69, says: “I’ve done a lot of work about the corridors of power and I thought it would be nice to do something more domestic.

“Somehow fracking has broken through all the traditional lines of class, politics and age. They are our three great dividing lines.

“I find it fascinating that you can have an old lady who reads the Telegraph protesting next to a scruffy 18-year-old. That’s quite rare.

“There’s no meeting in the middle. There’s a very big gulf.”

Beaton says he was also struck by “the big PR operation going on to support fracking”.

He says: “I think my heart is a little closer to the anti-frackers but I wanted to give both sides an airing.

“It’s a serious issue about the local environment right through to climate change.

“But the play is also humane – I don’t want to lecture the audience.”

Beaton admits he was sceptical of the anti-fracking movement initially but says after talking to people he “became a bit of a convert”.

The recent news surrounding the Chilcot report and the Iraq war left Beaton saying his TV drama, starring Robert Lindsay, is still as pertinent today.

He adds, “Sadly we have a great British tradition of nailing the little people but I don’t think we will see Mr Blair stand trial.”

This play has heightened Beaton’s taste for politics and, going forward, he hopes to address it again and is “thinking hard” about a Brexit piece for the future.

Fracked - Please Don't Mention The F-Word comes to Minerva Theatre, Oaklands Park, Chichester from Friday, July 8, to Saturday, August 6. Evenings 7.45pm, matinees 2.45pm, tickets (limited) £20-£42, £8.50 tickets for 16-25s, call 01243 781312 to book or for returns