Strangers on a Train Set – 23 and 24 October

The sublimely silly LipService – Maggie Fox and Sue Ryding – go off the rails in their new show Strangers on a Train Set, steaming into Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre next month.

The new comedy sees Irene Sparrow, inventor of the left-handed crochet hook, finding herself under suspicion of murder after she challenges a youth to turn his music down – then the train emerges from a tunnel with the young man dead.

But this is no ordinary train: each passenger is reading a book, and each book is a portal into a parallel universe of train-related crime fiction.

With clever use of projection and train sets, LipService gives you a whistlestop tour that will leave you breathless and racing for the refreshment coach.

So don’t blow your stack, this show is just the ticket to help you let off steam and overuse many more railway metaphors; a show that appeals to crime aficionados and narrow-gauge railway enthusiasts alike.

Maggie Fox and Sue Ryding have been writing and performing since 1985 – Strangers On A Train Set is their 21st production. As well as their work on the stage, they have had their own series on Radio 4 – nominated for a Writer’s Guild Award – and have twice won the Critics’ Award for Comedy at the Edinburgh Festival. LipService has toured nationally and internationally, with a reputation for a high quality and idiosyncratic comic take on popular culture.

Strangers on a Train Set can be seen in the Round at the SJT on Wednesday 23 October at 7.30pm, and Thursday 24 October at 1.30pm and 7.30pm. Tickets, priced from £10, are available from the box office on 01723 370541 and online at www.sjt.uk.com