AFTER 31 years, northern comedy duo LipService are finally losing the plot in their new show, but don't panic, it's all to the good, as can be discovered at York Theatre Royal tonight.

Jane Austen sits writing, her quill scurrying across the vellum as she dreams up Mr Darcy, a proud, lip curling, handsome creation in very tight pants, but then a door squeaks, a visitor approaches and Jane hastily hides her work. Now left to his own devices, Darcy embroiders his own storyline while his creator stitches her quilt. When Jane returns, she finds the plot has moved on and Darcy is dancing to a different tune.

In Mr Darcy Loses The Plot, LipService explore the world of women writers, scribbling in secret or under pseudonyms, squeezing in their writing among the hustle and bustle of taking tea, choosing chintz and the odd attack of the vapours.

"I think with this show it's a broader landscape than previously," says York actress Maggie Fox, whose multiple shows with Sue Ryding include send-ups of the Brontes in Withering Looks and Scandi-noir TV dramas in Inspector Norse.

"We're very interested in how women work, looking at the process of writing and how it's different for women, as we know. The show came about after we did some work for Elizabeth Gaskell's House in Manchester, which has been renovated in the past two years.

"We were doing a show about Emmeline Pankhurst [leader of the British suffragette movement] at the Pankhurst Centre in Manchester, and then added in Mrs Gaskell [the 19th century London novelist, biographer, humanitarian and campaigner] as the Gaskell house wasn't ready. They never met, of course, so we imagined a conversation between Emmeline and Mrs Gaskell."

The Gaskell show duly emerged too. "We've loved doing as it's in her house and the thing that really attracted us was the thought of her writing amid the all the hustle and bustle of domestic life and constantly being interrupted, with Charles Dickens, her publisher, always demanding her next piece!" says Maggie.

Move forward to Mr Darcy Loses The Plot, taking those previous shows a step further.

"We imagined what would happen if someone arrived, Jane hid her writing away, and Mr Darcy was left standing there; and then likewise Mr Bingley, and the two would be thinking, 'what can we talk about?'."

So begins Mr Darcy's journey in Mr Darcy Loses The Plot as he finds himself pulled into in Daphne du Maurier's Rebeeca and then Beatrix Potter's books," says Maggie, who contemplates how ideas for stories could be in the ether and how writers are inspired by other writers.

As Mr Darcy goes from story to story, so a patchwork of ideas emerges that can be put together like a quilt, hence Alison Heffernan's set design.

"Quilt panels have been made for us by Barbara Thompson's Full Circle Group of quilters, Crumpsall Crafters and Avenue Quilters from Blakeley," says Maggie, whose love of materials is derived from when her mother working as a tailor and dressmaker.

The experiences of female writers of the past chime with those of Maggie and Sue today. "The show relates to our own work and any woman writing today, such as when you have children, which can stop your flow," says Maggie.

"We've had those situations, faced by women in the arts, but we've been very lucky that audiences have 'got' what we do in our shows and have grown with us, so it's wonderful when you go on stage and you know people know your work and are aware of the kind of laughs there'll be." 

LipService present Mr Darcy Loses The Plot, York Theatre Royal, tonight; Leeds City Varieties, January 28 2017; Harrogate Theatre, February 16 and 17; all at 7.30pm. Box office: York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk; Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or cityvarieties.co.uk; Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk