GRAM and Ayla are chalk and cheese, but via brass and beats, could they they go together like fish and chips?

Gram (Darren Southworth) is a chip off the old block, following in his late father's very precise footsteps in the family-run chip shop, where rigour rules.

Already, Thursday's first sitting at six has polished off a light fish supper and a cup of tea before Gram moves among the tables. He needs help to step out of his dad's shadow, or so he sings in the first of the brass songs with Tetley tea folk tunes by Michael Betteridge and storytelling lyrics by playwright Emma Hill.

Peering through the Wackers glass, 16-year-old Ayla (Remmie Milner) sees the Help Wanted sign, glides in, headphones on, and doesn't take no for an answer. Instead, she bursts into rhyme in grime, rapped up in her wish to be an MC, if only she had the confidence to really test herself in front of a crowd.

She has an attitude, but it suits her abrasive sound-clashes, as she spins around the tables, setting up the condiments and placing plates while spinning her web of pugnacious words, again courtesy of Hill.

She's chippy, he's brassed off, but could Ayla and Gram help each other to break free from what is holding them back? You wouldn't expect scraps to settle their differences in a 55-minute show that's essentially bright and breezy under Ben Occhipinti's direction, but the story could do with a splash more vinegar sharpness to go with the fat chips, phat beats, northern humour and Yorkshire frankness.

Nevertheless, by the time the grime and brass – could we call it "Grime-thorpe"? – overlap in the final song, Southworth and Milner's lively, amusing, nimble and interactive duo is really cooking.

#ChipShoptheMusical, Emma Hill, Writes/Freedom Studios/Octagon Theatre, Bolton, Yorkshire Festival, Wackers, Gillygate, York; sittings tonight at 6pm and 8pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk