JUDE LAW, Dame Helen Mirren and James Bond's Q teamed up for a special one-off show under the direction of a former Redhill schoolgirl.
Katy Rudd made her first foray into theatre while she was a student at St Bede's School in Carlton Road.
Today the 25-year-old is an associate director on multi-award winning West End hit The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.
But she took on a new challenge when the show's star Luke Treadaway decided to assemble an all-star cast for a unique performance to raise money for autism charities.
In the space of ten days, Luke and Katy had got Jude Law on board and filmed scenes with Q actor Ben Whishaw and Doctor Who actor Matt Smith.
They even visited Dame Helen on the set of her West End show The Audience, where she plays Queen Elizabeth II.
"She is performing at the theatre next to us so we dropped off a note at the stage door one night," Katy told the Mirror.
"By the interval she had said yes. We filmed her on the set, we even had the corgis."
The Curious Incident, adapted from the book by Mark Haddon, tells the tale of 15-year-old autistic boy Christopher Boone.
For the one-off gala show on July 1 a new play – A Curious Night at the Theatre – was penned, starring Christopher Boone alongside Sherlock Holmes' nemesis Moriarty, the Doctor and Queen Elizabeth II.
Pulling the all-star cast together was easier than expected but Katy admits the production was a hectic experience. "We told the guys at the National Theatre we wanted to do this and they said normally fundraisers take a year," she said.
"We had ten weeks.
"We had one run through with the script with me and Luke at Jude's house.
"Part of the piece was to fly Jude Law through space, which we do in the show with Christopher.
"Originally it took weeks to work out but we had to do this in one day.
"It was brilliant, we were so lucky to have an amazing team working with us."
The show raised £104,000 for the National Autistic Society and Ambitious about Autism.
But being at the helm of the show is an experience Katy is getting used to – she takes over as director of Curious Incident when the new cast comes in on September 2.
"It is very exciting to get new energy into the play," the Reigate resident said.
"The play is so loved and the actors in it are fantastic and now they will continue on to other things and the play will continue on too."
