After some controversial scoring decisions last year, Emma Freud returns to host the eighteenth edition of the annual quiz of theatrical knowledge and dramatic invention.

This year the Theatre Quiz will, for the first time, bring together Britain's three leading theatre companies. In addition to the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, the entire National Theatre of Brent (Desmond Olivier Dingle and Raymond Box) will be the special guest scorers. The National Theatre of Brent are performing The Wonder of Sex, a shocking yet tasteful exposé in the Lyttelton Theatre.

The teams are playing for honor and for possession of the trophy. The two previous trophies were won outright in perpetuity - the National holds Sir Ralph Richardson's walking-stick, and the RSC holds Sir Antony Sher's Richard III crutch. The teams are battling over Brick's crutch from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, as used by the late Ian Charleson in Howard Davies' NT production.

With rounds such as Feel the Actor, alongside more general questions on the year in theatre and theatrical knowledge, contestants are sure to be challenged.

Team Captain for the National is Genista McIntosh, the NT's Executive Director. After 11 years at the National, she will become Principal of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama next autumn. Team Captain for the RSC is Guy Henry, currently playing Malvolio in Twelfth Night and the title role in King John. Previous RSC work includes Mosca in Volpone, The Merry Wives of Windsor and Cymbeline; at the National he has appeared in Bartholemew Fair, The School for Scandal and The Voysey Inheritance.

The teams will be posted on the National's website (www.nationaltheatre.org.uk) nearer the time.

Box Office: 020 7452 3000. Information: 020 7452 3400.

—by Paul Webb Theatrenow