He was a pornographer who rubbed shoulders with royalty and an anti-monarchist whose antics would make modern rock stars look like amateurs.

John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester and his tale of moral dissolution, is to be told by the Putney Theatre Company, in its production of The Libertine by Stephen Jeffreys.

Littered with profanity, The Libertine traces Rochester's decline from charismatic but bored wit to lovelorn, defeated drunk.

We follow his debauched capers, with his merry wits, through the royal palaces, inns and whorehouses of London.

We witness the comic and tragic outcomes of his antics as he wrestles with the absurdity of his privileged life and pushes the boundaries of his hedonistic lifestyle to evermore lewd heights.

Juggling wife, lover and whore, he rails against the king. And we begin to understand why his self-proclaimed, insatiable impulse to always go to far' makes him feel alive.

But can he can be saved from his self-destructive path or will we mourn the waste of an exceptional mind on malicious lampoons and mischief-making?

Directing the piece is Juliet Jordan from Wimbledon who has been involved with the Putney Theatre Company for more than 10 years and is finding the play a hoot.

"It's not often I read a play and immediately think I must put that on. I laughed out loud when I first read The Libertine six months ago, and I'm still laughing in rehearsals now," she said.

"It's rare to find a play that paints an intelligent and entertaining portrait of a larger-than-life historical figure, at the same time being amusing about sex and debauchery.

"I love the period (Charles II), Stephen Jeffreys gives us a real flavour of the time but in modern language."

The Libertine, The Putney Arts Theatre, February 22-26, £5-£8.

Call 020 8788 6943 or online at www.putneyarts theatre.org.uk, please note this play is not suitable for children.