THIRD Finger Left Hand completes a full circle when it begins a run in The Studio at York Theatre Royal on Wednesday.

Director Sonia Fraser and producer Amanda Daniels, of Nine Lives Productions, first approached Theatre Royal artistic director Damian Cruden about the play in November 2003.

"Sonia, my co-conspirator at Nine Lives, has a good relationship with Damian, and she last directed there in 1999, directing Miriam Margolyes in The Cherry Orchard," says Amanda.

"So we contacted him about the first draft of a piece by a new writer called Adam Canavan, who had been on the post-grad course with me at the London Drama Studio, and we ended up doing a rehearsed reading, funded by Damian, with me and Sarah Miller from the York rep for Private Lives and the panto that year."

Named after Martha Reeves' Northern Soul floor filler, Third Finger Left Hand is based on the lives of Canavan's two sisters. Set in Lancashire at the Seventies' height of Top Of The Pops fever, this look at escapism, family feuds and the possibility of resolution finds Grace and Niamh preparing to say goodbye as they reminisce about an abusive Irish father, a dearly loved mother and their one great love: dancing.

Amanda takes the role of Grace, Angela Clerkin plays favourite older sister Niamh, and their performances in the play's premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe last summer were so well received that they jointly won the award for best actress in a social drama in the Edinburgh Fringe Report.

Originally, Nine Lives had planned to perform the play in York straight after Edinburgh but another life stood in the way: "I was eight months pregnant by the time we finished in Edinburgh, so we decided that perhaps I should give birth first, then do a run in York," says Amanda.

Third Finger Left Hand, The Studio, York Theatre Royal, Wednesday to June 4. Box office: 01904 623568.

Updated: 16:22 Thursday, May 05, 2005