BELT UP Theatre, resident company at York Theatre Royal, present a double bill of new writing by company co-artistic directors Alexander Wright and James Wilkes in The Studio from Tuesday to Saturday.

Wright’s The Boy James and Wilkes’s Atrium made their debut last summer in sold-out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe, and these interactive plays now leave their mark on home turf, where audiences are invited, indeed encouraged, to enter the world of the imagination.

The Boy James is a story of playful innocence and cruel experience woven around the life of Peter Pan author JM Barrie.

“It’s a dark but beautiful tale of one bright-eyed boy’s startled awakening to the harsh realities of adulthood,” says Alexander. “Play with him and take his hand as you lead him back to Neverland.

“The Boy James is a truly intimate experience that allows its visitors the password to a strictly secret world: a safe haven where they can while away their time and get in touch with their inner child.”

Already this play with music by Alexander has struck an emotional chord with audiences in Edinburgh and London, including a certain Mr Stephen Fry, who was moved to tweet: “Just been knocked out by The Boy James. Still drying my eyes.”

From the writer behind Belt Up’s reinventions of The Tartuffe and The Beggar’s Opera comes Atrium, wherein James Wilkes blurs the line between fact and fiction.

Absurd comedy reigns supreme on this surreal journey through the subconscious mind of ageing artist Malcolm Kinnear as his self-obsession tears apart the life around him.

“You’re invited to be part of it, to be complicit in his self-indulgent flights of fancy,” says James.

“Why not bring an act to turn out in his cabaret or perhaps perform a striptease for his delight – you wouldn’t be the first member of an Atrium audience to do so!

“Previous audience members have volunteered to improvise entire crime thrillers about showjumping, thrown eggs at the actors and performed death-defying stunts and, of course, a handful have pranced around in their birthday suits.”

The two plays were developed for Belt Up’s immersive repertoire of Edinburgh Fringe shows in 2010, staged under the umbrella title of The House Above, in which ten devised works were performed in different rooms of a purpose-built house.

“These shows took place in The Study alongside Lorca Is Dead, which had begun life in the York Theatre Royal Studio a year ago, creating an accidental 12-month journey of these three plays exploring the artistic mind, life and loss,” says James.

Both shows subsequently transferred to Southwark Playhouse in London, where Atrium played alongside Lorca Is Dead and Quasimodo for three weeks last November and The Boy James played for three weeks in January.

“Come finish the journey with us by seeing the final chapters of this thematic trilogy in York from Tuesday night,” says James.

Ahead of its return to Edinburgh Fringe in August, The Boy James will be performed in York by Jethro Compton as The Boy, James Wilkes as James and Lucy Farrett as The Girl, under the direction of Dominic J Allen.

Atrium is directed, lit and produced by Jethro Compton and features a cast of Allen as Malcolm, Wilkes as Paul, Farrett as Butter and Serena Manteghi as Pennie.

Please note, both plays contain strong language and scenes that audience members may find upsetting or even disturbing – and of course Atrium will potentially contain nudity.

Tickets for the 7.45pm performances cost £12, concessions £10, students and under 25s £7, on 01904 623568 or online at yorktheatreroya.co.uk