THE opening of The Studio has brought about the opportunity for cultural diversity at York Theatre Royal.

Next Friday and Saturday, Britain's only East Asian theatre company, Yellow Earth Theatre, will stage Lear's Daughters - see competition - and before then, on Wednesday and Thursday, the learning-disabled company Full Body And The Voice will present Knock Knock.

Full Body director Jon Palmer started his theatre career at the Theatre Royal, working for 18 months with the now defunct Young People's Theatre, so he will be returning to old territory next week.

"The real link, however, came with the creation of the studio space and chief executive Ludo Keston's wish to open up the theatre to our kind of work," says Jon.

"The main Theatre Royal stage was always too big for us, but The Studio is ideal, and the theatre was looking to promote learning-disabled work."

Established in Autumn 1998 and based at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield, Full Body And The Voice are in their fifth year of touring, and already they have built strong relations with the Sheffield Crucible, Bradford Alhambra, Wakefield Arts Centre and the Square Chapel, Halifax.

Now Knock Knock marks two firsts for the company: Full Body are opening a show in York for the first time and introducing non-disabled actors to perform alongside the regular Huddersfield troupe of learning-disabled performers.

"We'll be in York for two days of dress rehearsals and we'll be doing a staff-training package with the Theatre Royal staff to help them work with learning-disabled people," says Jon. "We'll be opening eyes to what can be achieved with this form of theatre."

Seven of the ten original company members remain with Full Body, and for Knock Knock they are being joined by three non-disabled actors.

"The reason we've only just started to do this is that we wanted to establish a work process appropriate to learning disabled actors. Now they are at a point where they feel comfortable to work with non-learning disabled actors," Jon says.

Knock Knock is an hour-long devised piece on the theme of dreams and desires, worked into shape over eight weeks. "This kind of work can't be rushed: the performance style has become more specific with each show, but we still have room for improvisation, so that we can keep it real and spontaneous," says Jon.

"One of the wonderful things about learning-disabled actors is they don't have the baggage of feeling embarrassed when they're on stage. I always believed that if sufficient funds could be given to set up a learning-disabled theatre company, they could do wonderful things with theatre, and that is the case with Full Body."

The show's title of Knock Knock mirrors the significance of Full Body's work. "Through improvisation we got to thinking about going through doors to other worlds, and so the door is very significant in this production as the main feature of the set," Jon says.

Full Body And The Voice will be opening the door to new theatre opportunities at York Theatre Royal next week. Why not walk in and take a look?

Full Body And The Voice, Knock Knock, The Studio, York Theatre Royal, October 8 at 1.30pm, October 9 at 7.45pm. Tickets: £6 to £9, under 25s and students £3.50; ring 01904 623568.

Updated: 10:03 Friday, October 03, 2003