THE world premiere of John Godber's new play will take place in Beverley and the prolific Yorkshire writer-director is keeping it in the family.

From Monday to June 25, John's wife, the actress and writer Jane Godber, and their youngest daughter, theatre student Martha, will appear in The Empty Nester's Club at the East Riding Theatre.

Not for the first time in his playwriting career, the former Hull Truck Theatre artistic director has drawn on personal experience as the starting point for a play.

Martha, 18, known to the family as Ma, has just completed her first year at LIPA, the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, and this has prompted Godber to examine the experiences of all parents facing up to the prospect of life after their children have left home.

When daughter Millie (played by Martha Godber) flies the nest, Vicky Barrett (Jane Godber) sets up a self-help group for similarly bereft mums and dads.

Vicky hopes other “empty nesters” will come along to the inaugural meeting to purge themselves in shared stories of empty bedrooms, freshers’ flu, boyfriends, long goodbyes, motorway service stations and trips to Ikea, as she reveals how she fought back to be the woman she is today: exhausted.

“It was the things that were touching us directly which led to me writing the play,” says John Godber. "The premise is that our audiences will all have been there and been through many of the same things. But what happens as the play unfolds is that Martha’s character appears and tells her story of what she felt like leaving her mum and going away from home and all the stuff you get with freshers’ weeks and so on.”

The show was written very much with East Riding Theatre in mind and builds on the sell-out success there of two more Godber plays, both presented by the John Godber Company: the premiere tour of his Yorkshire mining-community drama Shafted, starring John and Jane in April 2015, followed by his apocalyptic nightclub horror show Bouncers last month.

After this month's Beverley debut, the John Godber Company is likely to tour The Empty Nester's Club from later this year or next year, so watch this space for details, especially with whispers afoot of a York Theatre Royal visit.

John Godber Company premieres The Empty Nester's Club at the East Riding Theatre, Lord Roberts Road, Beverley, June 13 to June 25. Performances: 7.30pm nightly except June 19 and 20; 2.30pm, Sunday matinee, June 19. Tickets: £11 to £15 at eastridingtheatre.co.uk or on 01482 874050.