THE Esk Valley Theatre, the Yorkshire moorland company, has assembled its biggest ever cast for its 2015 summer production.

Company co-founder Mark Stratton is directing Bill Champion, Rachel Barry, Tom Bevan, David Chafer, Alison Darling and Clara Perez in All Things Considered at the Robinson Institute, Glaisdale, near Whitby, from August 6 to 29.

In Ben Brown's comedy, professor of philosophy David Freeman is tired of life as he reaches 50. His only desire now is to control the timing and manner of his death, planning how and when he will end his life. All things have been considered on his path to "self-deliverance", except how much his friends and others need him.

Disrupting him with their earthly demands, they want to talk and they want his opinions. Ronnie has had an affair with a student; Laura is keen to discuss kidneys; Joanna craves his views on his ex-wife’s autobiography, and Margaret, the librarian, desires his love. Alone at last, he carries out his plan but is saved by the college electrician. Returning from hospital, David hears news that may change his mind yet ultimately the vagaries of chance would have it otherwise.

"It's a funny, thought-provoking play and full of surprises," says Mark, who is joined in the production team by producer and fellow company co-founder Sheila Carter, designer Ruby Savage, lighting designer Graham Kirk and company stage manager Sarah Follon.

Bill Champion, who will play the lead role of David Freeman, will be familiar to Stephen Joseph Theatre playgoers, in particular from his appearances in Alan Ayckbourn's productions at the Scarborough theatre. Chafer will take the role of Ronnie; Perez, Laura; Barry, Joanna; Darling, Margaret, and Bevan, Bob and Tom.

Ben Brown recalls his inspiration for the play. "Some time in early 1993, I was sitting in the Bodleian Law Library in Oxford, going through my tutor’s reading list, when I opened the journal Law and Philosophy and came across an obituary of a philosopher who’d committed suicide," he says.

"What intrigued me was that he claimed not to be depressed – and wasn’t terminally ill – but had simply decided that it was a good time to go and would make a good end to the story of his life, going out on a high rather than declining. He was 49 years old.

"Just 23 at the time, and with a one-act play under my belt, I wondered what might have happened if things had not gone as smoothly as he’d planned...So I pitched this idea to the legendary West End producer Michael Codron, who I’d been fortunate enough to meet in his capacity as the Cameron Mackintosh Professor of Drama that year."

Codron liked it enough to commission it,. "He specified that the play should be 'delectably funny, astringent and, yes, commercial too'. I put off writing it until I’d completed my masters degree and wrote it during the year in which I took the Bar exams," says Ben. "Michael then sent it to Alan Ayckbourn, who gave it its first production in Scarborough, directed at the Stephen Joseph Theatre by Alan Strachan with a cast including Christopher Godwin as David and Susie Blake as Margaret."

All Things Considered was then produced rapidly in succession in London, Paris, Sydney and for a four-month run in Germany. "Still in my twenties, I was an internationally produced playwright. So I abandoned the law and embarked on a life in the uncertain world of drama," says Ben. "I’m delighted that Esk Valley Theatre is now giving the play its first professional English-language revival and find a pleasing symmetry in the fact that at 46 I’m exactly twice the age I was when I sat in that library in Oxford and first had the idea for the play."

Rehearsals began on Monday. Performances will start at 7.30pm, Monday to Saturday, August 6 to 29, plus Saturday matinees on August 8 and 15; Thursday matinees, August 13, 20 and 27; Tuesday matinees, August 18 and 25, all starting at 2.30pm. Tickets cost £13, concessions £11.50, on 01947 897587 or at eskvalleytheatre.co.uk

Looking ahead to the autumn, Esk Valley Theatre is to tour John Godber's nightclub comedy Bouncers to venues in the Esk Valley and surrounding area from October 16 to 31 with a cast of Lee Bainbridge, Andrew Grose, Gabriel Paul and none other than Mark Stratton himself. He will co-direct the autumn production with Sheila Carter. Booking details and more information will be announced soon.