CHIP Shop Chips, Becky Prestwich’s nostalgic tale of love over fish and chips and a prime slice or two of Northern Soul, is frying tonight and tomorrow at Scarborough Market Hall.

Presented in tandem with the Stephen Joseph Theatre, these sold-out 7.30pm performances form part of Manchester company Box Of Tricks' tour of unusual spaces across the north from February 23 to April 21.

A fish supper is on the menu at each show, where Scarborough theatre-goers can choose between haddock goujons and chips, scampi and chips and vegan sausage and chips, supplied by Whitby Seafood: The Seafood Social.

First staged in 2016, when every show sold out, Chip Shop Chips will be performed by joint artistic director and company co-founder Adam Quayle's cast of Josh Moran (Eric), Julie Edwards (Christine), Jessica Forrest (Jasmine) and Mark Newsome (Lee) in Prestwich's story of the grand reopening of Booth and Sons' Fish & Chip Shop.

Eric has returned home from running a bar overseas more than 40 years after he left, reckoning now is the perfect moment for a fresh start, but recently widowed old flame Christine has other ideas. Transported back to a time of chippy teas and Northern Soul, there is unfinished business for these old lovers, but as they watch teenage love stumble when hapless Lee makes a pass at the beautiful Jasmine, is it all just history repeating itself?

The two love stories are played out in a chippy on a northern tour that takes in pubs, churches, market halls, libraries, community centres and village halls, with the Yorkshire locations including Leyburn Methodist Church on Sunday at 6.30pm and Pocklington Arts Centre on April 3 at 7.30pm. Only five tickets remain on sale for Pock on 01759 301547 or at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Becky is working with director Adam Quayle for a second time. "We did my very first play, Streetlights And Shadows, in 2007 at The White Bear, a theatre pub in London, and we stayed in touch from then on, so when I had my idea for this play, it felt like an Adam play," she says.

"Basically, I was having chip cravings when I was pregnant, and when I was sitting in a chip shop I just noted what a people-watching place it was. There was something evocative about chips and vinegar, and I felt there was something romantic I could do in setting a love story in a chip shop."

Research came next. "We spoke to some teenagers in youth theatre groups at the Royal Exchange in Manchester and the Bolton Octagon, and some older people too, because there's that intergenerational thing where it's still the case that the boy buys the girl a bag of chips on a first date," says Becky.

"We also talked to the over-55s play-reading group at the Octagon and they all had memories of their local chip shop, recalling the name of who ran it.

York Press:

"I felt there was something romantic I could do in setting a love story in a chip shop," says playwright Becky Prestwich

"So it did seem that the themes we first though of, first dates, families, and the traditions and rituals that people have around eating fish and chips, such as fish on a Friday, resonated with people."

Becky is in her mid-30s, straddling the 40-year gap between the two couples in the play. "I think the hardest age to write for is your own age because you haven't got that degree of critical distance. For me, the closer a character is to me in age, the harder I find it to be objective," she says.

"But with the characters in Chip Shop Chips, I can make an imaginative leap while letting myself go, because otherwise I could end up judging what a character does.

"With Christine and Eric, I thought, when they were in love at 17, why didn't it work out? He was quite a wild boy, Christine was feisty too, but she was also the working-class aspirational girl, the poster girl for the grammar school system who went off to university, had since got married, but now she's widowed, she wants to recapture what young love felt like, but is wondering, 'how do you recapture it?'.

"With hapless Lee, he's never had a job before; he left school directionless and really wants to impress the chip shop boss, and then this beautiful girl walks in...!"

Becky's play in a chippy, with its fish and chip supper, dancing, newspaper hat-making competition and a quiz, is a typically immersive piece of modern theatre. "Two of the cast play staff from the chip shop, so they're involved in serving the fish suppers, while the other two sit eating a plate of chips," says the Manchester writer.

"It's quite an interactive show, with the meal and the quiz, which audiences engaged in more than we first expected [on the 2016 tour], and we've now allowed more space for audiences to do that." A chance to chip in, as it were.

Did you know?

Box Of Tricks presented Lizzie Nunnery's award-winning Narvik at the York Theatre Royal Studio in February 2017.