With Royal Ascot on the horizon, Charles Hutchinson introduces a play with a racing flavour.

LADIES' Day at Royal Ascot at York will be every day from now until June 25... but it won't be in York.

Confused? Don't be. Amanda Whittington's new comedy drama, Ladies' Day, opened at Hull Truck Theatre, Hull, last night with its story of four fish-filleting factory girls heading to the Royal Ascot meeting for a drink, a flirt and a flutter.

"The idea for the play came after Hull Truck did a play of mine, Be My Baby, last year and the director, Gareth Tudor Price, said 'Would you like to write something for us?'," Amanda says. "We looked for something that would be good for the spring/summer season and would be relevant to the region.

"Gareth mentioned how, when he worked at York Theatre Royal, he would see these women going off to York races in all their finery and then he'd see them again at the end of the day, with their clothes all crumpled and looking worse for wear. I thought that would be an interesting world to explore, especially with Royal Ascot coming to York."

In Ladies' Day, likely lasses Pearl, Jan, Shelley and Linda believe their fortunes are destined to change when Linda chances across tickets to Royal Ascot Ladies' Day at York.

"The play starts with the girls working in a Hull fish factory, which is about the most unglamorous setting you can imagine," says Amanda. "So you get the transformation scene to the most glamorous setting as the girls change from white aprons, white wellies and hairnets into their glad rags in a choreographed routine, which is a bit of an Alice In Wonderland moment."

There are echoes too of Audrey Hepburn's Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, and that famous Royal Ascot scene designed by Cecil Beaton in black and white. "You can't do this play without a hint of that film, so we do use the Ascot Gavotte song," Amanda says. "Pygmalion and My Fair Lady are the ultimate story of transformation and just as Eliza Doolittle wanted to transform herself, so the women in this play are all looking to transform themselves."

Their day out will have plenty of twists and turns, with each of them having good reason for hoping their six-race accumulator will bring them £500,000.

"It's a character drama rather than a horse-racing drama, and the money could really transform their lives" says Amanda.

Amanda has not been to Ladies' Day at Royal Ascot, but she has been to York and Nottingham races.

"Gareth and I went last summer as part of the research for the play, and we just had beginner's luck, picking any horse that had any theatre connection and watching it win at 18-1. I'd never been anywhere before where I came home with more money than when I set off," she says.

"What struck me most was how you could have a great day at the races without ever seeing a horse. Every half hour there's a great buzz of excitement as the race finishes, but there's so much other drama going on."

Will Amanda attend Ladies' Day at the York course on June 16? "Sadly no, because we couldn't get a ticket for love nor money... though I don't know if I'd scrub up that well," she says. "It looks a bit intimidating."

Hull Truck's production, incidentally, parades York Theatre Royal favourite Martin Barrass in a host of comic roles, and Amanda hopes Ladies' Day soon may be staged in York. "This is its first outing but I'd love to think it might come to York, and there's certainly the intention to take it beyond its initial Hull run," she says.

Let's hope Amanda is on to a winner.

Ladies' Day, Hull Truck Theatre, Hull, until June 25, 8pm. Box office: 01482 323638.

Updated: 15:46 Thursday, June 02, 2005