YORK Musical Theatre Company are postponing this week's run of Dennis Potter's Blue Remembered Hills until the autumn.

Richard Bainbridge's production will still be staged at the Friargate Theatre, in Lower Friaragte, but the new November dates are yet to be confirmed, so watch this space. "The production is a bit different for us, as we’re tackling a play," says press officer and actress Anna Mitchelson.

Blue Remembered Hills was made originally for television and was first broadcast in 1979 with a cast led by Helen Mirren, Colin Welland and Michael Elphick. Potter's play concerns a group of seven-year-olds playing one summer afternoon in 1943, when it ends abruptly with a bad accident involving Donald, partly as a result of the other children's actions.

"The most unique and striking feature of the play is that the seven children’s roles are all played by adult actors," says Anna. "The children are seemingly innocent, but with no adults present, are also capable of horrifying acts of cruelty. It’s been likened to William Golding’s classic novel Lord Of The Flies, but it's evidently more shocking without the happy ‘rescue’ ending."

When Blue Remembered Hills does go ahead, it will not be the first time YMTC have presented a straight drama. In 2013 they performed A Chorus Of Disapproval, Scarborough playwright Alan Ayckbourn’s send-up of the world of amateur dramatics.

Explaining the choice of production, director Richard Bainbridge, the company chairman, says: "We had such a great time on A Chorus of Disapproval, and it went down so well with our audiences, that we knew we would approach doing a straight play again. We’re a theatre company and acting and drama is a big part of what we do, so it’s great to be able to give our members a combination of musical shows, concerts and plays to perform in this year.

"We’re also excited at the prospect of being in a new venue for us at Friargate Theatre and performing such a gripping drama in such an intimate space. It will be intense we hope.”

Before Blue Remembered Hills, YMTC will present the late Victoria Wood's Acorn Antiques The Musical, directed by Paul Laidlaw at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre from October 18 to 22. Expect his cast announcement imminently.