AFTER their debut last year with Thirty Little Plays About Life, the York Theatre Royal's Adult Theatre Workshop participants return with new company members, new plays and new playwrights (and some actors and writers from last time).

Ebullient director and course leader Michael Lambourne, such a life-affirming figure on the York theatre scene, received 70 to 80 "micro-plays" for consideration, each no more than five minutes in length on the themes of lust, life, love and loss, and over ten weeks he and his 22 workshop participants worked 22 of them into stage shape.

The "Thirty" was still attached to the title from last year on publicity literature, but 22 felt about right in terms of time-span and quality control for this tapas theatre experience.

The programme gave the actors only their first names and Monday and Tuesday's performances had a similarly relaxed and informal air, the theatre style also bringing to mind those improv-comedy nights beloved of Paul Merton and co, as the actors sat on benches, as if in a sports dressing room, waiting for their turn in the spotlight.

This is not the place to pick out individual performances, but, rather, to note how the stage craft has cone on leaps and bounds since last year's debut. The next step is to ensure a better standard of writing overall to match the likes of Claire Strickland's Love Declaration, Tom Strasz's Lonely Hearts, Paul Harrison's Art And Science, Alison Carr's Flapjack and Hannah Davies's Hymns.

Lambourne hopes to expand the project next year on its return to the Theatre Royal, especially the pool of writers, and is also contemplating the possibility of mounting similar evenings with groups across Yorkshire. Little plays, big ideas, this one could run and run.