BERWICK Kaler has started rehearsals for his first "serious" role at York Theatre Royal for 20 years.

Guest director Gregory Floy's cast assembled at the Walmgate rehearsal studios earlier this week to begin work on Harold Brighouse's vintage English comedy Hobson's Choice, in which Kaler will play the cantankerous and bumptious shoe shop owner, Henry Horatio Hobson.

The Theatre Royal's perennial pantomime dame last appeared there in a non-pantomime role as Antonio and Gianna Agnelli in Trumpets And Raspberries in 1985.

Hobson's Choice tells the story of the drunken and tyrannical Hobson and his three daughters. When Hobson refuses to provide a dowry for the two younger girls, he is tricked into doing so by their older sister Maggie, who further humbles her father by marrying his chief boot-maker, Willie Mossop, and opening a rival shop.

Emma Gregory and David Shelly, who both have performed for the Royal Shakespeare Company, will play Maggie and Willie respectively.

Robert Pickavance, at present appearing in Macbeth at the Theatre Royal, will be Dr Macfarlane; Miranda Floy, Gregory Floy's daughter, will be Vicky Hobson and other roles go Christine Cox (previously seen in York in Abandonment, When We Are Married and Single Spies), Colin Higgins (Singles Spies and Sleeping Beauty in York) and Justin Gratton.

The production will feature the first professional design by Lili Rogu, from France, who graduated with a first in theatre design from Nottingham Trent University last summer. Her chance to design Hobson's Choice came about through her winning The York Prize, a joint venture between York Theatre Royal and the university.

Hobson's Choice will run from March 29 to April 16. Tickets: £3.50 to £17.50; ring 01904 623568.

Updated: 09:05 Friday, March 04, 2005