Mister Macaroni and his bungling troupe of players are destined for Coxwold and York with their entertaining evening of Georgian comedy: Laurence Sterne’s major works, A Sentimental Journey and Tristram Shandy, as you have never seen them before.

Presented by HC Productions, A Sentimental Journey follows the absent-minded and easily distracted Parson Yorick as he encounters an assortment of lords, ladies and chamber maids in his travels through France and Italy.

Alas, matters become complicated for the parson, who forgets that England is at war with France, does not have a passport and finds himself stranded in a storm in the mountains.

Tristram Shandy tracks the love story of Captain Toby Shandy and the Widow Wadman, asking the questions “Just how serious is the Captain’s war wound and will it influence the outcome of his ‘amours’?”

This version of Sterne’s novel was written as a two-act bagatelle in 1783 by Leonard MacNally and HC Productions’s staging is the first in more than 200 years.

The company was founded in 1988 to specialise in colourful productions with a strong 18th Century flavour and gave its first performance that year at the Bar Convent in York. The debut show was Sentimental Journey in an earlier incarnation that was then staged at Fairfax House during the 1992 York Festival.

After productions at the Newcastle Comedy Festival, Edinburgh Fringe and International Shakespeare Festival in Neuss, Germany, the company went dark. This year, however, original members Bob Webb, Mary Pickin and Roger Liddle have assembled once more to re-launch HC Productions with their new version of their original show, complete with musicians, original music, specially commissioned costumes and a starling.

Performances start at 7.30pm at Coxwold Village Hall tonight (in partnership with the Laurence Sterne Trust) and the National Centre for Early Music, York, on Saturday and Sunday.

Box office: Coxwold, laurencesternetrust.org.uk; York, 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.