A heart-warming and hilarious new play, 'Ladies That Bus', based on real-life interviews with bus travellers between Lancaster and Keswick, is set to arrive in Ormskirk next month.

The comedy drama will be parked up at Ormskirk Library on Monday 2nd March at 2.30pm. It's a theatre performance created from real-life interviews with bus travellers from the North West, and shows a day-in-the-life of the Route 555 bus from Lancaster to Keswick and the kaleidoscope of different characters that travel on it.

The show presents a hilarious compilation of songs and stories of the passengers; entertaining, engaging and evocative, Ladies That Bus explores journeys taken and not taken, regrets and celebrations, isolation and what it really means to be free.

Described as “a jewellery box of a production”, the show has seen sell out audiences on the tour of northern venues.

Ladies That Bus is the creation of actor and composer Helen Longworth (currently playing Hannah Riley in The Archers) and writer Joyce Branagh. The play has been created in association with The Dukes, Lancaster, Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, the Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal and supported with funding from Arts Council England.

In September last year the ‘Ladies’ met over 500 people during interviews, workshops and on the 555 itself, getting to know the area, the people and the stories.

“We didn’t know what to expect” says Joyce Branagh, the lead writer on the project “we didn’t know what people would tell us – but it’s been amazing, and such a range – from secret love trysts, tipsy Abba tribute acts, teenage ‘bus tribes’, and the people that we’ve lost, to the simple things that have brought joy, as well as one real-life murder. We’ve heard it all.”

“One group we met really touched us” says Nicola Jayne Ingram, one of the performers who led workshops in Heysham and Bolton-le-Sands libraries “some of the group had gone through really rough times, but they were excited to tell us about their experiences. One lady even sang us a song she’d written as we gave her a lift to her hospital appointment, as she’d missed the bus!”

Speaking ahead of the performance, Spot On’s Lyndsey Wilson said: “We’re so pleased to be able to bring this show to our audiences in Lancashire. When the company was writing the play and researching themes we had the opportunity to offer them two residencies in libraries, we are very proud to have enabled our Spot On audiences the chance to feed into a brand new piece of writing. The show speaks from the heart about travel in Lancashire and the Lake District and we know our audiences will love it!”

This show is the first performance of the Spot On Spring season, and one of three performances of the Ladies That Bus tour - tickets are £8 each and can be purchased by calling into the library directly or emailing ormskirk.library@lancashire.gov.uk

Further information, including online booking, is available via www.spotonlancashire.co.uk, and for more information about the show or to see the full Spot On Spring 2020 programme, visit www.spotonlancashire.co.uk, email hello@spotonlancashire.co.uk or call 01254 660360.