HAVE you ever heard of Kitty Bridges’ Pocket Book Of Tunes? If not, from tomorrow York company Common Ground Theatre will perform a new play inspired by this 18th century book, written and enacted by esteemed playwright and performer Miss Hannah Davies.

Common Ground’s production was motivated by the poem and folk music found in a 1745 pocket book on display in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, in London. Hannah felt inspired to enter into a collaboration with Over The Yardarm musicians Paul Baldwin and Moira Clarke to present the story of Kitty, who starts her adventures in Yorkshire before finding scoundrels, rogues and vagabonds in ballrooms and gin-sodden streets.

Premiered in a one-off January performance at The Witham, in Barnard Castle, the show combines storytelling with poetry and song, complemented by handpicked melodies for dancing and will be touring throughout Yorkshire and the North-East until April. Tomorrow provides the first chance to see it in York at The Gillygate pub in Gillygate at 7.30pm, followed by Dunnington Village Hall on Saturday.

Paul and Moira, from Stokesley, were looking for a collection of tunes to record when Moira came across Kitty Bridges’ Pocket Book Of Tunes at the Cecil Sharp House in London. “It had 21 tunes in it and I thought it would be nice to take the tunes into schools, but it also struck me it would be good to have a narrative with it,” says Moira.

“Then it struck me that each tune also had a dance to it but none of us in the band is a dancer, so it was suggested we should contact Hannah, who came to see us play at a festival. Once Hannah had her PhD out of the way, we started working on the show together in November.”

Who was Kitty Bridges, Hannah? “No one knows who she was, whether she was the author of the book or the curator’s muse, so the aforementioned poem was my starting point for making up a story of who Kitty might have been,” she says.

“I’ve settled on Kitty being a foundling, of a low status, where freedom is represented by the freedom of singing, dancing and playing, as when I started writing the story, I thought about how music and dance can be representative of freedom.”

The audience will be encouraged to bring their dancing shoes for “An Entertainment In Two Parts”, in which they will be involved in part two. “The original idea was to have the audience members dancing to each tune during the show, but now there will be a dance set after the show in which I’ll be the caller as I’ve trained as a caller,” says Moira. “I’ll be teaching the steps, then playing.”

For tickets and information on all the tour dates and venues, visit www.cgtheatre.co.uk

• Please note, an extra date has been added: The Tithe Barn Poppleton at 7pm on March 14 with tickets available from York Theatre Royal on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk