Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, 41 Monkgate, York, June 8 to 11

Written in 1992, shortly after the Lebanon Hostage Crisis, the play is a fictional account of three men living through those troubled times as a young American doctor and a cynical Irish journalist are joined in a cell by a widowed English academic, who had moved to Beirut to teach at the university.

They must pool their meagre emotional resources to survive the psychological terror inflicted on them by unseen captors.

“Told with dry wit, outrageous humour and heart-wrenching emotion, the story of how these men cope with their situation makes for one of the most thought-provoking plays of late twentieth century British theatre,” says director Andy Love.

Last year he formed Wildgoose Theatre with fellow co-artistic director Martyn Hunter with the mission of staging such powerful works. “Following the critical success of our first production, Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloane, we believe we are again presenting a true modern classic, rich in dark humour and drama,” said Andy.

He is not only in the director’s seat but also appearing as Edward, the Irishman. Joining him will be Settlement Players, York Shakespeare Project and Mooted Theatre Co regular Andy Curry as Adam, the American, and Richard Easterbrook as Michael, the Englishman.

Richard is working with Andy Love once more after appearing as Kemp in Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloane and in Tom Stoppard’s Heroes, while the director was keen to utilise Curry’s stagecraft for the first time.

He would not be accompanying them on stage by choice, however, but more by necessity. “In the end it was a directorial choice, though I won’t tell you why I’m in it! Let’s just say there were artistic differences that led to me playing the Irishman,” he says.

Reading between the lines, it usually means there has been a change in the cast, one that that has left Andy with dual tasks. “What I’ve taken to doing is filming rehearsals and giving myself notes from that as you can’t see yourself perform – because when you’re focusing on yourself you tend to focus less on the other two guys, but you need to be doing that,” he said.

Andy chose the McGuinness play for Wildgoose after reading Brian Keenan’s An Evil Cradling, the Irish writer’s account of his time in captivity in the Lebanon.

“He also wrote the introduction to the published version of the play, having avoided seeing it for two years. Having finally seen it at The Gate in Dublin, he was amazed how true it was, even though it was fictional,” said the director.

“Twenty years later, you realise that nothing has changed. There are still conflagrations in Syria, Iran – who were key players in that hostage scenario back then and still are now, though terrorism is now more direct.”

Tickets for the 7.30pm performances cost £10, concessions £8, on 01904 623568 or online at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk