ESK Valley is synonymous with Goathland, Grosmont, Heartbeat and Ian Carmichael, but gradually word is spreading about Esk Valley Theatre too.

It takes some finding does the Robinson Institute in Glaisdale – your reviewer has never taken the same route twice on the 48-mile trek from York – but more and more people are discovering the summer home to Mark Stratton and Sheila Carter’s professional theatre company.

Every performance has sold out since Wednesday of last week, and Thursday’s phone lines had been typically hot, a stream of callers being greeted with a “Sorry, we’re sold out” apology, revealed Mark. No wonder, the company is contemplating “extending the season slightly” next year.

Even sceptical locals are warming to the annual presence of Stratton’s company. One farmer had never been before – “culture” wasn’t for him, he reasoned – but he bit the bullet this summer, sat in the front row and loved it.

The chances are that you will too. Stratton and Carter have taken the brave decision of increasing this year’s cast size to five, facilitating the opportunity at last to stage Michael Birch’s wry stage adaptation of David Nobbs’s northern rites-of-passage novel.

Set between 1935 and 1953, it traces the oft-troubled childhood of Henry Pratt, a boy almost as unfortunate as his surname, but as resilient as the British in the war years that form the centrepiece of an episodic, yet smooth-flowing show stuffed with humour, pathos and nuggety northern nous.

Complemented by Graham Kirk’s mood-enhancing lighting, Pip Leckenby’s blue-toned set – even the foul-mouthed parrot is blue – makes clever use of fold-out walls for the quick changes of scene so vital to Stratton’s delightful two-hour production.

He has cast superbly well, too. Dudley Rees, no stranger to comedy from his sketch group ComComedy, has just the right innocence, open manner and eternal expectation of disappointment for Henry. Around him, James Hirst, Nigel Lister, Catriona Martin and Gemma North flesh out 30 characters between them without ever resorting to caricature.

Lister’s effete southern public-school boy Lampo Davey and drunken magician The Amazing Illingworth are particular favourites, while the outstanding North’s eight characterisations span so many emotions and stages of life.

The finishing line is approaching for this Sack Race, so don’t dilly-dally, book now and good luck with the route-planning.

* Second From Last In The Sack Race, Esk Valley Theatre, Robinson Institute, Glaisdale, near Whitby, until August 28. Box office: 01947 897587.