Sacha Baron Cohen may be the King of character comedy but Lois Tucker could soon by the Queen.

The actress and comedian was a huge hit at the Edinburgh Festival last year with her first play involving the shy and silent Lois of the Lane and now she is back with a new show, in which Lois finds herself a reluctant superhero.

"She is my alter-ego," explains Tucker ahead of the first preview of the play at Theatre503 at the end of the month.

"I have always liked comedy with facial expressions and came up with the idea of her as someone that comes in and does something different for five minutes and then goes off.

"I haven't come up with a good phrase for what I am doing yet, it always takes me a lot of words to explain it to people.

"It's along the lines of Charlie Chaplin, although he plays different characters in different films he is still the same kind of character.

"So I put her in different situations and she has to react to it."

The latest situation is as a reluctant superhero, given powers after being exposed to a mysterious chemical at the hands of evil genius Megalomaniac Man.

"In the show Lois is called Extraordinary Girl," says Tucker.

"Along with four other people she was exposed to a chemical compound by an evil genius hoping they would help him rule the galaxy, instead they work for the government trying to stop him.

"It's basically a week in her life as a superhero set in her pokey bedroom receiving calls on a big red phone telling her where to go.

"The others enjoy the celebrity but she would rather sit and read her book, she's a reluctant hero "You only see her in her bedroom before and after she goes out and you only hear the other characters in conference calls or on news reports on the television."

Super Situation, Theatre503, The Latchmere, Battersea Park Road, July 29 and 30, 9.15pm, £10. Call 020 7978 7040 or visit theatre503.com.