Esk Valley Theatre revisit debut show September In The Rain at Theatre Royal

Actor Mark Stratton and choreographer Sheila Carter formed their professional company in 2005 in the village of Glaisdale near Whitby, since when they have toured to a variety of locations in the North and staged productions every August at Glaisdale's Robinson Institute, against the backdrop of the North Yorks Moors National Park.

"I directed the first production we ever did, which happened to be September In The Rain, in a three-week run in Glaisdale," recalls Sheila, who is directing the 2017 revival of Godber's tale of Yorkshire couple Jack and Liz taking their annual trip to Blackpool, always the highlight of their year.

"Mark was in the original production, with Mary Ryder, and he's doing the new show too, this time with Una McNulty.

"The first time we did it, we managed to get some Arts Council funding, which was good news! We'd always wanted to stage a play, and we thought John Godber's September In The Rain would be a good one to entice people into the theatre when putting it on in a village institute. Mark had just done September In The Rain at Bury St Edmunds and then toured around Suffolk, and we thought, 'why not do it up here in Yorkshire too?'."

Brought up in Oldham, Sheila would take day trips to Blackpool when growing up. "I recall the rain, every time we went. I was only a young child when we first went, and I continued it into my teens with trips to the Pleasure Beach, so what John's written about Blackpool is very familiar to me,"she says.

The perils of a Blackpool deckchair: Mark Stratton's Jack seeks to solve a perennial puzzle as Una McNulty's Liz looks on in September In The Rain

In September In The Rain, Jack and Liz take the audience on a roller-coaster ride through their holidays: the highs and lows, the arguing and making up, all washed down with a cocktail of ice-creams, fish and chips and rain. The stresses and strains of married life are brought into focus as the short scenes peel back the layers of their relationship to reveal the truths within.

"The reason that I love this play so much is that we try to play it so truthfully because it's all there in John's writing," says Sheila. "For anyone, even if they haven't been to Blackpool, the story is so universal, because we've all been to our coastal towns. The thing to do is to trust John's writing and not ham it up."

Sheila has approached directing Godber's play "in a very different way" from her 2005 production. "I'm more experienced for a start," she says. "I would only ever direct something like this because I know it well, and I've worked with lots of different directors as a choreographer, working with actors a lot, so a play like this has to be seamless, rather than stopping and doing a dance, as happens when I'm choreographing.

"You'd be mad not to have learned something from working with Alan Ayckbourn for 24 years, and living with an actor, as I do, you certainly learn lot a lot from that too. If you've worked with actors all around country, you can store up what works and what doesn't."

Important too is the chemistry between the cast of two. Mark Stratton and Una McNulty had worked together in The Tempest for Northern Broadsides "many years ago", and "when we were thinking of who could play Liz, we'd seen Una in a couple of John Godber plays," recalls Sheila. "So we met up for a chat and I just sort of knew she would be right. I like the honesty in her acting and she and Mark are working really well together."

Esk Valley Theatre present John Godber's September In The Rain, York Theatre Royal Studio, April 11 to 15, except Good Friday; performances at 7.45pm, plus 2.30pm, Thursday, and 2pm, Saturday. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk