The theatre run by artistic director Alan Ayckbourn will present the play Oct. 16-Nov. 8.

In Jack Lear, according to the resident theatre, "Jack is old, tired and finally hanging up his oilskins and sou'wester. At last he is dividing up his 'kingdom' to his feisty and unforgiving daughters, Morgana, Freda and Victoria. But years of being raised in hard graft amongst fish guts and leering trawler men has made each one long for femininity and freedom. As Jack looks towards a retirement of rest and putting his boots up, his daughters have other ideas in mind as their resentment rises and surges with the tide."

Rutter is the founder and artistic director of Northern Broadsides. The son of a Hull fishworker, he grew up on the Hessle Road, the fishdock area of Hull.

Joining Rutter in the cast are Wendy Albiston, Rachel Jane Allen, Andy Cryer and Becky Hindley.

For more information visit www.sjt.uk.com. *

The Stephen Joseph Theatre was founded in Scarborough by theatrical pioneer Stephen Joseph, the son of actress Hermione Gingold and publisher Michael Joseph. He had seen theatre in the round in America and determined to bring it back to Britain. A series of events brought him to the seaside town of Scarborough on the North-East coast where in 1955 he established a tiny theatre in the round on the first floor of the Public Library. The theatre flourished and in 1976 moved to a supposedly temporary home on the ground floor of the former Scarborough Boys' High School at an initial conversion cost of £40,000. However, a permanent home proved difficult to find and it wasn't until late 1988 and the closure of the local Odeon cinema by Rank Leisure that the theatre's long-standing artistic director, Alan Ayckbourn, found a suitable venue.