Mainstream play fans are bracing for Friday's return of 'Bashment Granny 3', one of the most popular local play franchises in recent memory.

Since its birth in 2007, 'Bashment Granny' has been box office gold, launching the career of Keith 'Shebada' Ramsay and playing to packed theatres all across Jamaica and the Jamaican diaspora in the US and the UK. The sequel was even more successful with more than 100 performances overseas and 200 performances locally.

Fas-forward to the year 2014, the franchise has not lost any of its currency with local fans.

In 2007, the story started out with a desperate Bad Boy Trevor who used his "father" in an attempt to fleece millions of dollars from a wealthy Miss P, a generous girlfriend from the UK. Trevor was eventually incarcerated and missed the chance to cash in on the fruits of his deceitful labour. In 2010, Shebada and Mr Bashy had a stroke of luck and inherited the ill-gotten gains of Trevor's nefarious scheme.

Flush with new cash, they invested the money but the investment quickly turned sour. the cash went up in smoke, even as the unsavoury character Half-a-Dog, the real owner of the cash, jetted in from New York in a bid to collect what was thought to be rightfully his, and Bashy and Shebada slink off into the shadows.

Plot thickens

in 2014, Bad Boy Trevor is released from prison, only to find that Shebada is still in hiding and Half-a-Dog is still barking and sniffing for his cash. He is determined to collect his bone, but finds himself looking at his shadow in the water for too long. Fans will be on the edge of their seat as a meeting between the Dog and the Bad Boy is imminent, and a few bullets are on the agenda. This time, the situation is dire and Mother Teresa, aka Crashment Granny, must make the major moves because battle lines are drawn and a tripartite war is about to start.

Bashment Granny 3 is an action-packed comedy that will grip you from start to the curtain call.