ANDY Field has not undertaken a theatre role for nearly a quarter of a century.

“Apart from in the operating theatre,” says the Clifton doctor. “I was a surgeon before I became a GP.

“I’m 45 now and I was last in a musical theatre show when I was 21/22, while I was a student at St Mary’s Medical School, though I’m a member of York City Gospel Choir, which I’ve been in for about three years, doing some solo work, so that’s warmed me up a bit.”

Choral singing has “warmed up” Andy for his principal role in Kirkby Malzeard playwright, composer, choreographer and director ECR Roberts’s new musical comedy, Going Grey, which opens at 41 Monkgate, York, on Wednesday night.

“My GP hours mean I’m now free in the evenings and at weekends,” says Andy, who had a further reason for wanting to return to the stage.

“This year, my very best friend died of cancer and it made me think I really should get out and do things,” he says.

During his medical school days, Andy had been “into sport massively”. “But I also deliberately did some drama at that time as an antidote,” he says.

Twenty-four years later, he will play opposite Jo Wragg in new York company Drip Drop Theatre’s debut production, a show he describes as “a jolly frolic, more raucous than refined”.

Jo, a police detective by profession, takes the central role of Helen, who is suddenly widowed, only days before she turns 40 and now craves a quiet life running her Little Blue Café in Shambles. Enter Andy’s character, Phillip, a witty, intelligent writer from Robin Hood's Bay.

Jo has performed over the years in bands – since January she has been playing flute and tenor sax in Dynamics – and she has added musicals to her repertoire.

“Music has always been an interest,” she says.

“I’ve always played instruments, and around five years ago I started playing in a swing band and did a little bit of singing with them.

“It gave me a taste for it and I then auditioned for York Musical Theatre Company for The Wizard Of Oz in 2010, and that was the first stage show I’d done since schooldays. So, having not been on stage for all those years, now I was singing to 800 people at York Theatre Royal.”

Jo has done further shows with YMTC. “But I was also keen to try other things, and when Daniel Wilmot, who I’d performed with, said he had a friend of a friend who was writing a musical, he thought I’d be really good in it.

“It was on his recommendation that I auditioned…and I ended up getting the lead, which was a bit of a shock! It means I’m on stage for all but ten seconds of the show!

“I always like to have my script in the wings as a sort of comfort blanket, but I’m not going to be able to do that for this show…unless I hide it in the menus!”

Jo’s partner, Malcolm Poole, performs on the York stage too, next appearing in Six Lips Theatre’s The Government Inspector.

They are busy off stage too. “We have a nine-week-old Jack Russell puppy, Mia, so that’s a handful as well!” says Jo.

Charles Hutchinson Drip Drop Theatre's Going Grey runs at 41 Monkgate, York, from May 2 to 5 at 7.30pm nightly. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk