ALAN Ayckbourn once described his lunchtime plays as theatre for people who don’t think they like theatre.

People who popped in for a spot of lunch at the SJT and found there was a play going on in the corner.

He has returned to such plays in the past few years, and the bite-sized dramas of Consuming Passions have enjoyed a summer in the Bistro, where Parts One and Two, Premonitions and Repercussions, could be seen on differing days.

They are now conjoined in the McCarthy auditorium, where any impatience at waiting to see Part Two can be cast aside in the interval. Like a Twix, they are more satisfying when both pieces are consumed together.

Ayckbourn’s sci-fi dark comedy Henceforward is being revived in The Round downstairs in a play that looks into a dystopian near future, and the near future is at the heart of Consuming Passions’ brace of half-hour restaurant dramas too.

York Press:

Andy Cryer, left, Louise Shuttleworth, Rachel Caffrey and Leigh Symonds in Premonitions. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Melanie (Louise Shuttleworth) is sitting alone at her usual table, irritating the Italian waiter by ordering only tap water, when she is joined by fitness coach Freddy (Andy Cryer) and Cora (Rachel Caffrey), her ex-boss’s wife, who appears to be planning his murder. Except that they aren’t really there; they are booked in for the same table for the next night, but somehow Melanie is witnessing their conversation in the future.

Can she stop the murder from happening? Well, you will find out more in Repercussions, when Cora’s husband, Cedric (Symonds), agrees to Melanie's urgent request to meet him.

Ayckbourn once more is the master of the dining table scene, spinning plates both farcical and dark. In particular, the table manners of his irascible Italian and supercilious English waiters (Symonds and Cryer) are well worth a tip and a trip to Scarborough.

Consuming Passions, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until October 8. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com