YORK theatre company Next Door But One will "book-end" York's Dead Good Festival with four performances of a witty and poignant play that explores death, dying and grief.

Laura Wade's Colder Than Here will be performed by Susanna Cunningham, Ceridwen Smith, Anna Rogers and Maurice Crichton at York Cemetery Chapel, Cemetery Road, on Saturday at 7.30pm and Sunday at 2pm, then St Nicks Nature Reserve and Environment Centre, St Nicholas Fields, Rawdon Avenue, York, on May 17 and 18 at 7.30pm.

Wade's once-act drama takes an unsentimental and, at times, comic look at terminal illness and what happens to the dynamics of a family facing a situation many of us dread. In turn, Next Door But One want to use theatre to prove that conversations about death do not have to be scary or morbid.

Artistic director and founder Matt Harper-Hardcastle recalls his own first encounter with Colder Than Here. "I remember, six years ago, leaving the studio of the Theatre by the Lake, in Keswick, with my mum and saying to her ‘that’s the sort of thing you’d do."

He was making a comparison between his own mother and the central character, Myra. "At that point, never did I expect for my life to draw so many parallels with the play four years later, when my mum was diagnosed with bone cancer," he says.

"There was less than five months between my mum receiving her diagnosis and her passing away. It was such a devastating shock that ricocheted throughout our family, but something which my mum faced with strength, honesty, humour and a lot of organisation: similar to the protagonist in Wade’s play."

Next Door But One's production is being supported by Arts Council England funding from the National Lottery, enabling the York company to offer tickets on a Pay What You Feel basis, with all proceeds going to St Leonard's Hospice in Tadcaster Road.

As well as receiving the ticket donations, all costumes worn by the actors have been sourced from the 13 St Leonard’s Hospice charity shops by Matt, working with the hospice retail team.

"Directors will often say how a play calls to them, which for lots of personal and professional reasons Colder Than Here did for me, but, more than that, it was the community which called to Next Door But One.

"Being part of York’s Dead Good Festival means we can use theatre to engage people in difficult conversations, raise funds for a vital local charity, while also having community partners feeding in to the creation of the production. That's what we're really about as a theatre company."

Next Door But One's work has taken in presenting a play on motherhood, Any Mother Would, performed at York Disability Pride and the Great Yorkshire Fringe; running a six-month participatory arts programme, Good Grief, for people with recent experience of bereavement, funded by Two Ridings Community Foundation; and performing within York’s Dead Good Festival.

Working alongside St Leonard’s Hospice to produce this festival reiterated to Next Door But One how conversations about loss, terminal illness and grief needed to be re-phrased.

"We believe the arts have a large role to play in opening up this conversation: making it one that is engaging and invigorating, one that provides a different space and one that uses a different vocabulary in which to speak about death, dying and grief," says Matt.

"Since I saw the play in 2012, I’ve always wanted to direct my own version, and and after losing my mum, and now working with St Leonard’s Hospice on the festival, it's the perfect time to make this work and bring people into it."

To reserve a place to see Colder Than Here, go to nextdoorbutone.co.uk. To find out more about York’s Dead Good Festival, visit yorksdeadgoodfestival.co.uk.

Charles Hutchinson