Javier Marzan arrives in the café of the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith and goes to order himself a coffee.

When he returns there is a moment of comic potential – he is carrying a cup of hot beverage and a saucer. Marzan is a master clown, trained under one of the greatest theatre jesters, Phillipe Gaulier, and on stage his every move is carefully co-ordinated for maximum clowning effect.

Can Marzan contain those clowning instincts off stage long enough to set his coffee down safely?

It's not as easy as you might think – Marzan is so engrossing on stage because he is like that other great comedian Tommy Cooper – he has "funny bones". It is as though clowning comes naturally.

Disaster is avoided and Marzan takes his seat without incident.

The actor is one half of Peepolykus, the much celebrated company he founded with John Nicholson and David Sant, who is currently taking a break.

Nicholson also trained as a clown, at Circomedia in Bristol. Teaming up with Marzan to create a partnership seemed like a natural move when the two met, and they have been creating work for the past dozen years with their company, Peepolykus.

In 2007, the company came to the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds to
co-produce a three-man version of The Hound of the Baskervilles. The production broke box office records at the Playhouse and went on to London's West End where it won the company many new admirers.

The new fan base included David Farr, now the artistic director of the Lyric, who invited the company to work with his theatre. The result is Spyski, fantastic reviews for which are posted all around the Lyric as Marzan sits down to talk about the show.

When asked about the excellent reviews, with a heavy Spanish accent Marzan says: "The Guardian hated it."

In the mouth of a more serious actor and person, this statement might seem a "woe is me" kind of attitude, but somehow Marzan's infectious enthusiasm, which will later in the evening grip the whole audience in the Lyric theatre, makes it sound funny.

"It's okay, not everyone understands clowning," says Marzan.

In about an hour's time he and Nicholson will perform Spyski – but the jokes start even before the audience take their seats.

The programme for the production advertises not Spyski but a very serious production of The Importance of Being Earnest. Underneath the title, however, is the additional sentence: "(Absolutely not Spyski!...no way... no spies at all)."

Spyski is presented as a "covert play" being performed in secret, away from the prying eyes of a Big Brother government.

Marzan explains: "The idea was to do something with a script and a proper story the whole way through.

"When we did Baskervilles at the Playhouse, that was the first time we had used a script and not done a purely devised show. The Playhouse were really great and supportive and we found that we liked working that way, so we decided to try it again."

At this point, the other half of the Peepolykus creative team, John Nicholson, arrives, and all you can think of is the five-star review from The Times which made reference to "Nicholson's oval face". It is very oval. Also, his hair stands away from his scalp as though he has spent the afternoon rubbing a balloon on his head, while his front teeth, it is not too cruel to say, resemble Bugs Bunny's. Put this on stage with Marzan's accent and you have a potent comedic combination.

Following the huge success of Hound of the Baskervilles, director David Farr met with the two of them in the hope of coming up with an idea for a show they could co-produce.

Nicholson says: "It was David who actually suggested doing something around the story of the Russian spy who was poisoned. We took that idea and played with it in the rehearsal room."

Marzan adds: "As clowns, we want to connect with the audience in the here and now, but it is a challenge for us to put that clowning in the context of a story that moves along. Our clowning does not want to connect with the audience on an intellectual level, we want it to provoke a muscular response. But we also want to tell a story and tell it with finesse."

The play is loosely based around the story of Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian security officer who died in a London hospital, reportedly from radiation poisoning, two years ago.

From this starting point, the Peepolykus company, made up of five performers, including Marzan and Nicholson, create their own imagined narrative. Nicholson plays himself, an actor who is taken to hospital with food poisoning and ends up in the same room as Litvinenko, played with increasing hilarity by Marzan.

Woven into this is a performance of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.

Complicated? Yes, but, thanks to the ingenuity of the script and the dazzling performances, it works.

Nicholson says: "Working on Baskervilles at the Playhouse was a really wonderful experience, and the success of the show meant that we gained a much higher profile – opening in London at the Lyric is a big step up.

"It also meant our ambitions were greater for the show. As clowns, we are invoking performers like Buster Keaton and the Marx Brothers, the great traditions of Vaudeville, but with the script we're also taking the audience on a journey with a narrative."

With half-an-hour to go before stepping on stage, Nicholson and Marzan head off, avoiding any major pratfalls. Those are all saved for the stage, where their faultless clowning creates comedic mayhem.

Spyski, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds Nov 5 to 15.