OLIVIER Award-winning writer Jessica Swale, who adapted York Theatre Royal’s summer hit The Secret Garden, turns her attention to Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility in The Lakes Season, which runs at York Theatre Royal from November 6 to 17.

Directed by York Theatre Royal’s Associate Director Juliet Forster, this production is one of five shows from the summer season at Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, that transfer to York in November.

Sense & Sensibility, which opens the season, offers a fresh and funny adaptation that sees the Dashwood sisters cheated out of their inheritance and turfed out of their home. Banished to a chilly cottage in Devonshire, the arrival of a handsome stranger changes everything.

The second Alan Bennett play of the York season is his Olivier Award-winning comedy Single Spies. This explores one of Britain’s most fascinating stories of espionage – that of Guy Burgess and Anthony Blunt: their secret identities, hidden motivations and a rather unexpected interrogation by the Queen.

Jeeves & Wooster in Perfect Nonsense is a play from the works of P G Wodehouse by the Goodale Brothers in which aristocratic man about town Bertie Wooster and his dutiful valet Jeeves go for a weekend away at a country house.

Two further shows in the Studio complete The Lakes Season. The sharply funny and moving Bold Girls is written by Rona Munro and set in 1991 West Belfast during the Troubles.

Rails is Simon Longman’s funny, poignant and emotionally arresting play. Mike is a 16-year-old who’s really into his scooter. He’s really into Sarah too. But she’s probably not that into him. His brother Ben is stuck working in a petrol station and dreams of escape and their mum can’t seem to speak anymore. Their lives collide one hot summer.

Tom Bird, York Theatre Royal’s Executive Director, said: “The Lakes Season is an exciting part of our Autumn/Winter season that gives our audience the opportunity to see five top-class productions from another wonderful north of England producing house.”

For more information contact the box office on 01904 623568 or go to yorktheatreroyal.co.uk