Artistic director Damian Cruden is billing York Theatre Royal's autumn programme as "one of the richest mixes of work we have ever presented". He guides Evening Press critic Charles Hutchinson through the diversity of work that reflects the theatre's desire to be more things to more people

Give a snapshot of the season, Damian.

"Cultural diversity is at the heart of the autumn work. There are voices from Ireland, Rwanda, South America, Bradford and South Yorkshire. Stories about love and revolution, loyalty and betrayal, football and poetry. Young voices that are seldom heard, voices from the past and laughter in the present. Music and, of course, a panto from Mars with a dame from Acomb."

Turning to the repertory and touring programme in the main house, first up from September 6 to 25 will be the Yorkshire mining drama Brassed Off, adapted by Paul Allen from York writer Mark Herman's screenplay. What sparked your production?

"This will be our retrospective glance at the effects of the miners' strike and the ultimately flawed concept that there was no such thing as society.

"The play is a wonderful mix of politics, art and love. The relationships are clear yet complex, as a mother has to weigh up the cost of a trombone with the task of putting food on a table, and we too must consider the relationship between art and survival.

"All this will be brought to life with the assistance of the Shepherd's Building Group Brass Band and Harrogate Brass Band."

The mutually beneficial relationship with Pilot Theatre and its artistic director, Marcus Romer, will continue. What's in store?

"Our resident Stage Exchange 'partners in theatrical crime' will be reviving their first Theatre Royal production, The Lord Of The Flies, in the 50th anniversary year of William Golding's novel, from September 28 to October 2.

"Marcus will then be directing our Stage Exchange production of Martin McDonagh's first play, the grotesquely macabre, darkly comic Irish tale The Beauty Queen Of Leenane, which won four Tony Awards on Broadway."

English Touring Theatre and Oxford Stage Company have become regular visitors to the Theatre Royal. What will be their shows this autumn?

"Stephen Unwin directs English Touring Theatre in Twelfth Night, Shakespeare's great comedy, second only to The Merchant Of Venice, from October 5 to 9. There are shipwrecked twins, cross dressing, and the unrequited love of a knight old enough to know better and too old to do it, and then there is Malvolio, the steward with a face like a wet Wednesday, Monday through Sunday.

"Oxford Stage excel in their production of neglected modern classics, and this time they present Yorkshireman David Storey's 1970 play Home from October 27 to 30. The play is set in an asylum that is an impressionistic picture of a contemporary Britain, deprived of a secure, authoritative place in the world. How little that world changes."

A blast from Theatre Royal past will be returning to York this autumn.

"Yes, we'll be welcoming back John Doyle, my predecessor as artistic director, with his new actor-musician piece called Pinafore Swing from October 19 to 23. Inspired by Gilbert & Sullivan's HMS Pinafore, John's adaptation is a 1940s-style musical of secret trysts, mistaken identity and true love."

Comedy highlights?

"We have some dear friends returning to tickle our collective funny bone from October 12 to 16. Described by the Guardian as the Laurel and Hardy of literary deconstruction - or did they mean destruction? - Sue Ryding and Maggie Fox of Lip Service are back with Very Little Women, their satirical take on Louisa May Alcott's classic novel.

"Then from December 8 to January 29, he's back by popular demand: Berwick Kaler, one of York's most treasured possessions, second only to the Minster and almost as old. It's Berwick's 26th panto and it's Sleeping Beauty.

"This year's show has a title but no plot as yet, and I can assure you we're doing everything in our power to ensure it stays that way."

Space is tight, so please rush through the Studio season (more of which in next Friday's York Twenty4Seven).

"We have Tall Stories Theatre Company in Edward Lear's The Owl And The Pussy Cat; Red Ladder with Madani Younis's Silent Cry, a powerful tale of an Asian dying in police custody; and Out Of The Box performing Nilo Cruz's Cuban story, Two Sisters And A Piano.

"Theatre Royal favourites Robert Pickavance and Elizabeth Mansfield star in Steve Trafford's tragi-comedy about Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, A Cloud In Trousers; Clean Break stages Jennifer Farmer's prison drama Compact Failure; Ice And Fire Theatre presents a young asylum seeker's story, I Have Before Me A Remarkable Document Given To Me By A Young Lady From Rwanda; and Southwark Playhouse will be with us for a month with Chris Chibnall's football play, Gaffer!"

Any final thoughts, Damian?

"Theatre is a shared experience between artist and audience. It's a mental and emotional gymnasium in which we come to a better understanding of ourselves and of those around us. It has the ability to transport us, to share with us experiences and views from other peoples in other lands, as well as relating voices closer to home."

For tickets and brochures, ring 01904 623568.

DID YOU KNOW

York Theatre Royal welcomes almost 250,000 visitors a year, a conduit for £2.5 million to enter the local economy. Last year, attendance by young people aged up to 25 rose by 49 per cent; over 60s by 20 per cent; and those with disabilities by 79 per cent.

Updated: 15:33 Thursday, June 17, 2004