THESE two contrasting shows sum up the diversity of York Theatre Royal’s TakeOver Festival, when the theatre is run by under 26 year olds and innovation and youthful vitality is all the rage.

Ironically, Lip Service satirical duo Maggie Fox and Sue Ryding are old hands at the Theatre Royal, so much so that their latest show plays on the march of time and crow’s feet in a modern culture send-up of Oscar Wilde’s novella and of our increasing, negative obsession with ageing.

Lip Service have hit on a new formula of utilising a community cast to bolster their shows, first for their Doris Day spoof and now their work on the Wilde side, but The Picture Of Doreen Gray is at its best when Fox and Ryding work off each other in double act tradition.

Fox’s Doreen is a radio presenter of the Alan Partridge variety with a television motoring show whose bosses have decided she is a clapped-out old banger ready for the scrapheap; Fox piles up a multitude of characters around her wreckage.

Send-ups of washing powder and cream adverts, the Beeb’s Glastonbury coverage, the art world, ghastly school reunions and cookery goddess Mary Berry hit the mark in this erratic but enjoyable romp through some our worst, most shallow characteristics.

Metal Rabbit presented the British premiere of Bradley Rand Smith’s adaptation of Damton Trumbo’s anti-war novel, young American Joe Bonham’s account of the mental and physical scars of being blown up in the First World War.

Jack Holden’s 75-minute solo performance – one man, one chair – was a searing, intense monologue that impressively conveyed a man lost between dreams, nightmares and reality. You too felt burnt by the end.