Song, dance and bickering - curtain is due up on delightful Noel Coward double bill at Pickering's Kirk Theatre

The show features a cast of Scarborough and Pickering actors in a short comedy by Coward and a revue with songs introducing his 1930s partnership with actress Gertrude Lawrence.

“Co-production is the way to go” said producer, director and leading player Tim Tubbs, “and my company has found a great partner in Pickering’s dynamic Kirk Theatre.”

The show opens with a revue celebrating the stage partnership and lifelong friendship of Noël Coward and Gertrude Lawrence. Scripted by producer Tim Tubbs, who plays Noël to Rachel Anderson’s Gertie, accompanied by musical director Bill Scott, Introducing Noel and Gertie includes songs by Coward, Gershwin, Porter, Weill and Rodgers and Hammerstein.

The second half is Coward’s witty ‘interlude with music’ Red Peppers, originally written as a starring vehicle for himself and Gertie. Tim Tubbs and Paula Cook play a sparring song-and-dance act in the 1930s dying days of music hall.

In a Northern town’s failing Palace of Varieties, the Red Peppers mess up their opening number and burst into dressing room recriminations, before engaging in hilarious combat with orchestra leader Bert Bentley, John Brooks, theatre manager Mr Edwards, Chris Gray and faded West End Shakespearean actress Mabel Grace, Suzanne Booker, under the gleeful eye of call-boy Alf, Aston Sheader.

“Coward grew up in a family that rowed constantly and as a struggling young actor witnessed the backstage feuding and finagling of the touring theatre circuit. All his comedies, from Hay Fever and Fallen Angels to Private Lives and Blithe Spirit, offer hilarious bickering matches.”

The show is at the Kirk Theatre on Fridday August 28 at 7.30pm and on Saturday August 29 at 2.30pm and 7.30pm.

Tickets are £15 and are availablefrom the box office on 01751 474833 and online at www.kirktheatre.co.uk/events.