JOHN Godber had a word of advice for Nick Lane when he was directing an earlier production of September In The Rain in the York Theatre Royal Studio. "It's my favourite play. Don't muck it up," said the Upton playwright.

This 1984 two-hander is indeed one of Godber's finest works, perfect for a small-scale company such as Glaisdale's Esk Valley Theatre, who first staged it as their debut show in 2005and are now re-mounting it with Sheila Carter as director once more and artistic director Mark Stratton reprising his role as taciturn miner Jack.

Carter, Stratton and fellow cast member Una McNulty very definitely have not mucked it up, the key to this comic drama being the need to veer away from the stereotype of the nagging wife and the henpecked husband. Instead, Godber, director and cast combine to express the complexities of love that still bind Yorkshire couple Jack and Liz down the years, despite their flare-ups, fall-outs, frustrations and ultimately their fading light too.

Godber drew on his own mining family for his story of Jack and Liz's return to Blackpool every traditional mining holiday in September, from young love in an overheating Ford Anglia, to their raincoat old age on one final bus trip.

Graham Kirk's set of seafront railings and lamps, two chairs and two suitcases is so evocative, you can smell the sea air, apparently thicker in Blackpool, reckons Godber, so it does you good.

It is such details that mark out Godber at his humorous, observant best, brought to life by Stratton and McNulty's dovetailed acting prowess, with room for the viewer's imagination to play its part too.

Stratton has plenty on his plate in his directorial role at Esk Valley – he will be directing this summer's production of Ben Brown's Larkin With Women at the Robinson Institute, Glaisdale from August 10 to September 2 – but he is always good value on his forays to the stage, and he is an ideal Jack. He makes him say so much in his few words, through both his physicality and a blunt way of talking, and while his Jack is stubborn, volatile and outwardly incapable of love's little touches, you sense how bereft he would be without Liz.

McNulty, a canny casting choice from her work with Hull Truck, the Stephen Joseph Theatre and Northern Broadsides, bonds delightfully with Stratton. She is both amusing and touching as the long-suffering Liz, Jack's polar opposite: chatty, wearing her heart on a sleeve, and looking for blue skies where he sees grey and black.

As the Godber plays pile up through the years, September In The Rain still stands out with its everyman truths in its salty seaside world of regular routine, smelly donkeys, The Student Prince matinee, B&Bs, pleasure beach rides and fish and chips on the front.

September In The Rain, Esk Valley Theatre, York Theatre Royal Studio, until Saturday, 7.45pm and 2pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk