IT will be downhill all the way next month at the Grand Opera House. John Godber's revival of his 1992 skiing comedy, On The Piste, will transform the York theatre into the Austrian Alps for a cresta run from February 4 to 9, and Friday Night Fever has five pairs of tickets for readers to win for the Friday performance at 7.30pm.

On the Piste packs off self-conscious DJ Chris Baxter and his more liberated colleagues on the holiday of a lifetime in which their fidelity will be tested to the maximum on a hazardous course of Alpine love.

Shenanigans abound and tempers fray, on and off the Piste, in this comic slalom starring Daniel O'Brien as Chris alongside Adrian Buchet, Dawn Finnerty, Mark Lennock, Jaqueline Naylor and Loveday Smith.

Writer-director Godber has decided to take to the slopes once more after reflecting on the play's chequered history: "I directed the first version when it premiered at Chesterfield's Pomegranate Theatre in 1991 and, although I didn't realise it at the time, it was very much a 'work in progress'.

"Since I'd played Rugby League on stage in Up'n'Under, done judo on stage in Blood Sweat And Tears and even had weight-lifting in my first play, Cramp, I thought the idea of skiing on stage would be easily achieved. How wrong I was!"

The 'astra-turf' floor covering made for difficult skiing conditions, bubbles and all. "The only way we could make the actors actually move was if we laminated the underside of their skis with bubble bath. Imagine the scene, every time an actor came off the set, the poor stage management had to apply bubble bath to a fresh pair of skis!" Godber recalls.

"If, as happened regularly on tour, water came into contact with the skis, the actors found that they were not only skiing, but creating a fine line in lavender bubbles on the set at the same time!"

On The Piste was re-worked in 1993 and subsequently became a West End hit but Godber has never directed the revised version, until now. "I've always stood on the sideline watching the play work, even for the last Hull Truck rendition, directed by Grahame Watts in 1995. So, I'm now faced with the ultimate challenge," he says. "Skiing on stage sounded like a great idea back in 1992; now I have to direct it myself, I'm beginning to wonder!"

Tickets for On The Piste are £8 to £14.50 (01904 671818).

Updated: 09:51 Friday, January 25, 2002