RICHARD Stone saw Townsend Productions’ production of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists in Nether Edge, Sheffield, last September. Now he is starring in the company’s second tour of Stephen Lowe’s two-hander.

He has taken over from Fine Time Fontayne in a show that visits Harrogate Theatre from tomorrow until Saturday for the first performances of the 2013 itinerary.

“Fine Time is one of my best friends and I’ve known Neil [musical director and fellow cast member Neil Gore] for a long time, working with him quite a few times for Quondam Theatre in the Lake District,” says Richard. “We had this play we did together called Donuts Like Fanny’s about ten years ago.

“Fine Time was coming out of the Ragged show after the first tour as he was busy with his pantomime, and he came round to our house. ‘That’s a fantastic show,’ I said, ‘I’d love to do it’ – and I was available for rehearsals! So eventually Louise [director Louise Townshend] and Neil said, ‘Why not join us for rehearsals?’. I hadn’t seen Louise for about six years – I’d worked with her when she was casting director for a couple of shows.”

Rehearsals have been taking place in Aylesbury, in preparation for Lowe’s fast-paced account of Robert Tressell’s 1914 socialist story of a year in the life of a group of painters and decorators as they renovate a three-storey town house for Mayor Sweater.

The actors use instrumentation, songs of the period, movement, comedy and characterisation to create the spirit and clarity of the political message, as the painters/philanthropists struggle for survival on poverty wages in a stagnating, complacent Edwardian England.

“There are no gaps, no breaks, in the performance; we’re never off stage, so it’s a bit a head-banger of a show as a two-hander when it was originally played by seven!” says Richard.

“But I think what it brings to it, and what my daughter, who’s studying theatre design in Trent, said about it too, was that as a two-hander it’s the kind of drama you don’t often see now. Two actors doing everything: performing, playing music, non-stop.

“I saw it four times last year and just watching Fine Time and Neil doing it, you think, ‘My god, how do they do all that?’. It’s stunning.”

Richard believes the play benefits from the streamlined cast. “Once the audience understand it’s a two-hander, everything becomes clearer and maybe you understand more about the arguments that are going on. When the union flag is raised at the end, it’s very moving; even if it’s not a celebration, it brings a tear to the eye,” he says.

“It’s also a play that’s very relevant to what’s happening today, with a Conservative-led coalition in power.”

• Townshend Productions present The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Harrogate Theatre Studio Theatre, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus Saturday matinee, 2.30pm; box office: 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk.

Further performances: The Carriageworks, Leeds, April 5, 7.30pm; 0113 224 3801; Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, May 8 at 7.45pm and May 9, 1.45pm and 7.45pm, 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com