THOSE who have rolled up their sleeves and worked the pumps may have pondered that working behind a bar is a little like being in a theatre audience. An array of stories and emotions are played out in front of you: brief glimpses in to the lives of others. Even sitting for a quiet afternoon sipping your pint presents mini scenes played out in front of you. Who hasn’t whiled away a contemplative minute speculating what your fellow drinkers are doing, talking about, working out their back stories?

Jim Cartwright’s Two, the next Playhouse production, offers you the chance to lean in a little closer to those pub-world conversations, to experience in more detail the drama and everyday goings-on around you.

Ask what Two is about and you get all kinds of answers. Human relationships, lack of communication, loneliness, sadism, hope and hopelessness, love and hate. It is all of these and more. Set over the course of an evening in a late 1980s pub, we meet landlord and landlady plus a colourful array of regulars who come into the pub and share a snapshot of their lives.

Two puts extraordinary demands on its pair of actors, who play 14 characters with wildly different ages, personalities, accents and costumes. Playhouse regulars Andy Price and Sarah Potter are taking on this considerable challenge. It makes for a thrilling spectacle, as actors shape-shift before your eyes. Emotionally too, the play moves from humorous to bleak to heart-warming. The whole piece is played naturally to enhance the realism and bring out the everyday, everyman qualities.

It’s hard to discuss the plot without giving away key surprises, but watching the relationships entwine, one realises that this is a master writer at work. Poignant, heart-warming, thought-provoking: these adjective can be over used when discussing productions, but it’s hard to over-state how these qualities apply to Two. Make sure you don’t miss out by booking your tickets via the Playhouse box office or website.

Two opens on Tuesday, May 9 to Saturday, May 13.

To book tickets for any of our productions, please visit www.ilkleyplayhouse.co.uk or phone the Box Office on 01943 609539. You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for all the latest news and backstage gossip!

by Claire Emmott