GREEN Hammerton company Badapple Theatre are reviving their wartime comedy drama The Thankful Village on a spring tour that opens this week.

Written by artistic director Kate Bramley with music by Sony Radio Academy award winner Jez Lowe, this poignant play follows the lives of three women from the same Edwardian Yorkshire rural household – above and below stairs – through the long years of The Great War, left behind to cope as their men-folk march off to Flanders.

Kaitlin Howard's superior, starchy, cold Victoria is in charge of Zoe Land's chatterbox house maid Nellie and Fiona Organ's daydreaming, wide-eyed scullery maid Edie in the White Horse coaching inn in the village of Thankful-in-the-Vale in a play that runs its course from August 1914 to the war's end.

"Each one faces up to the challenges in her own way, with resilience, humour, a sense of duty and whatever vestiges of hope she can muster, as the years pass by and they wait anxiously for news of their loved ones far away," says Kate. "They cannot know that their village will end the war as one of a very few similar communities, for which fate has reserved a special place in history".

Such communities became known as The Thankful Villages, so named because they lost no men in the Great War, as all those who left to serve came home again. In all, there were 52 settlements in England and Wales that had this blessing at the end of the conflict.

Bramley's play is marked by defiant humour, an emotional clout and a poignant final twist, making you thankful for the under-appreciated Great War service of women as much as the men whose story is familiar from history books and the War Poets alike.

Kaitlin Howard and Zoe Land both appeared in the original 2014 production, now joined by Fiona Organ, who takes over from Emma Bright. Meanwhile, composer and songwriter Jez Lowe has made his mark as part of the award-winning team behind BBC Radio 2's Radio Ballads series. Kate Bramley co-directs with Paul Smith and the set design is by Catherine Dawn.

The Thankful Village will be previewed at The Barn, Bilton in Ainsty on Thursday night; further performances follow at Kirkby Malzeard Mechanics Institute on Friday (box office, 01423 339168); Lockington Village Hall, Saturday (01430 810005), and Whixley Village Hall, Sunday (01423 339168).

Next come The Cholmeley Hall, Brandsby, April 15 (01347 889353); Belmont Parish Hall, April 16 (0191 3848348); Amotherby Village Hall, April 17 (01423 339168); Burton Fleming Village Hall, April 20 (01262 470556); Stillingfleet Village Hall, April 23 (01423 339168); Galphay Village Hall, April 23 (01423 339168); Haxby Memorial Hall, April 24 ( 01423 339168), and Catwick Village Hall, April 29 (01964 544480/542584/544845).

Next month's travels venture farther afield but do include one more Yorkshire date, Appletreewick Village Hall on May 19 ( 01423 339168). All shows start at 7.30pm; tickets also can be bought online via badappletheatre.com