NORTHERN Broadsides and playwright, poet and novelist Blake Morrison have once again joined forces, this time to stage the world premiere of For Love or Money, Morrison’s new adaptation of Alain-Rene Lesage’s savage eighteenth-century comedy Turcaret.

Directed by Barrie Rutter, For Love or Money can be seen at Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre from Tuesday, 14 to Saturday, November 18.

In a small town in Yorkshire, a beautiful widow is being wooed by two suitors. Fresh from the city and with endless money to dispose of, the older one showers her with gifts – which the younger, handsome, impecunious, an inveterate gambler wants to put to better use.

But money’s a slippery commodity and all is not quite as it seems. Throw in a bailiff, a drunkard, a vamp, a second-hand clothes dealer and two upwardly mobile servants, and the complications multiply.

For Love or Money will be the final touring production to be directed by Northern Broadsides’ artistic director Barrie Rutter, who will be stepping down from his role in April 2018.

A great supporter of the work of Northern Broadsides, poet, playwright and novelist Blake Morrison has translated and adapted six hugely successful plays which were all commissioned and performed by the company, the most recent being the acclaimed We Are Three Sisters in 2011.

He said “It’s 21 years now since my first collaboration with Barrie Rutter, The Cracked Pot – an adaptation of a Kleist play in which, as well as directing, he took the leading role. By my count there’s been seven more collaborations since, with adaptations of plays written in German, Italian, Russian and Ancient Greek – plus one, in Geordie, that required only minor adjustments for it to be ‘Yorkshire-fied’. That’s been the pattern: wherever and whenever the original play is set, I try to render it in a language that’s true to Rutter’s allegiance to northern speech. Instead of RP, it becomes NBI – Northern Broadsides Idiom.”

Tickets are priced from £10 to £25, and can be booked via the box office on 01723 370541 or via www.sjt.uk.com

For more information on Northern Broadsides, please visit www.northern-broadsides.co.uk