YORK company Wildgoose Theatre are presenting Frank McGuinness’s Gates Of Gold at Upstage Theatre, 41 Monkgate, York, from tonight to Saturday and at 7 Arts Theatre, Chapel Allerton, Leeds, on November 16.

Written in 2002, the Irish play presents a fictional account of the lives of Micheál MacLíammóir and Hilton Edwards, the fashionable and eloquent English-born theatrical trailblazers who founded the legendary Gate Theatre in Dublin.

"Here we see them presented as Gabriel and Conrad, theatrical and life partners for over 30 years," says director Andy Love. "But now Gabriel is dying and the pair must re-evaluate their lives, love and legacy. They're joined by a nurse, Alma, and Gabriel’s sister, Kassie, and her son, Ryan, in a play that explores the magic of theatre and the imagination, while addressing questions of sexuality, gender confusion and human mortality, in McGuinness’s trademark mix of humour and piercing poignancy."

Gates Of Gold marks the return of Wildgoose from a five-year hiatus. "After the success of our last production, McGuinness’s political drama Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me in June 2011, we decided that we wanted to re-launch Wildgoose Theatre with another strong, but unfamiliar play and looked at another McGuinness work, Gates Of Gold, which has not been readily available for non-professional performance," says Andy.

“Presented on a split set, it presents some challenges to us and the audience, with sometimes unconnected scenes presented together, somewhat akin to Alan Ayckbourn’s Bedroom Farce.”

Andy is again in the director's seat, after directing the 2011 production, and this time his cast of "some of York’s finest actors" comprises Richard Easterbrook as Gabriel, Paul Baxter as Conrad, Rosy Rowley as Alma, Jeanette Hunter as Kassie and Stu Freestone as Ryan.

He is delighted to see Wildgoose flying once more. "We'd only bene going for two years, doing Entertaining Mr Sloane in 2010 and Some Who'll Watch Over Me in 2011, when the money ran out, but now we're starting again," he says.

"We're doing a play that's hardly been done over here and was written to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Gate Theatre, but has a wider appeal than that. It's your typical Frank McGuinness play in that it's well observed and both funny and sad, as most of his plays are, forever piercing the humour with the sadness of being set on the last two days of Gabriel's life. Mind you, most actors like death bed scenes and this is a death bed scene for 90 minutes to all intents and purposes."

Tickets for the 7.30pm evening shows and 2.30pm Saturday matinee in York and the 7.30pm Leeds performance are on sale at £12, concessions £10, at wildgoosetheatre.com