THE first Studio production of the York Theatre Royal autumn season could not have a more apt title: A Special Relationship.

Special relationships abound within the production: Three Legged Theatre Company, from London, has linked with the Theatre Royal for the first time for a co-production; playwright Sara Clifford and director Lucy Pitman-Wallace are collaborating on a new play for the second time; and Theatre Royal has played an essential part in the play's gestation.

Then there is the subject of the play itself: the relationship between Sam, a 25-year-old black man on Death Row in America, and Barbara, who is white, British and old enough to be his mother. Meeting for the first time they will spend five hours together in a prison cell.

Lucy herself has had a fruitful relationship with the Theatre Royal. Two years ago she was co-director for the repertory season of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, The Blue Room and A Midsummer Night's Dream, before she went on to win an Olivier award for her Eastward Ho! production for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

"The seeds of this play were planted during that 2001 season in York. I was already writing with Sara, the writer, when Damian artistic director Damian Cruden told me there was this design meeting I'd forgotten to put in my diary. I said, 'Oh no, I've already put her off three times'. He said 'Bring her along'. I thought 'Well, OK, I'll go along with that'."

From that meeting, A Special Relationship took wings. Repertory cast members Suzy Cooper and Michael Glenn Murphy did workshops on the play in its original form, then presented it to Damian. Later a rehearsal reading was performed in the Studio.

"Damian did lots of jumping up and down at that point, all very positive, saying 'How about if we did it as a co-production?'," Lucy recalls.

Arts Council funding under its national touring programme ensured that co-production could blossom, with a tour of such prestigious venues as the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Bristol Old Vic and the New Vic, Stoke, to follow.

A Special Relationship, The Studio, York Theatre Royal, September 11 to 27. Box office: 01904 623568.

Updated: 14:55 Friday, September 05, 2003