SHIPTON Theatre Company went gunning for only one musical when choosing its 30th anniversary production. "We're very proud to present Irving Berlin's classic musical Annie Get Your Gun, as it's not been seen in York for 25 years, we reckon," says Robert Readman, who is co-directing the show with teenage hot property Scott Garnham for performance at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, next week.

"The score is crammed full of hit songs, such as There's No Business Like Showbusiness and Anything You Can Do, and you wouldn't believe how popular cowboy stuff is again among young people. You try hiring anything from a shop right now!"

Annie Get Your Gun is based on the true story of Annie Oakley (to be played by Sarah Barker), the shooting-contest newcomer who challenges Frank Butler (Dan Hield), the star turn in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

She wins, he loses, she is a hit, he quits in fury for another show, and their subsequent romantic rivalry became the stuff of a musical with a witty script by Herbert and Dorothy Fields.

Dan Hield promises humour aplenty in the show. "We're trying to do it a little bit tongue in cheek. It might originally have been intended to be played straight but it now suits being done in a humorous way.

"It's so humorous that you can't play it straight: you can't compete with TV or the movies of today for sophistication, so it's better to do it just for fun."

Sarah, meanwhile, is handling a gun for the second Shipton show in a row, after Stephen Sondheim's Assassins earlier this year. "Luckily I don't have to shoot a dog this time," she says.

Explain, please, Sarah. "Why did I shoot a dog? The character I was playing, Sarah Jane Moore, was mad. She meant to shoot President Gerald Ford."

Neither Dan nor Sarah would claim to be ace shots. "But I did do a corporate day's clay-pigeon shooting and I won," says Dan.

What about you, Sarah? "My shooting skills are... none. But I loved having a gun in Assassins. The cast were rather worried by the end, in fact they thought I was psychotic!"

So, fun with guns it is, and romance too.

"We've not played opposite each other before in lead roles, and they don't come more romantic than this," says Dan.

"It's feisty, rather than romantic," Sarah cuts in. "They're always falling out - and they love it."

Expect sparks to fly from September 17 to 21 at 7.30pm nightly. Box office: 01904 623568.

Updated: 09:10 Friday, September 13, 2002