HOWARD Spencer Mosley, York alternative-history guide, Other Side comedy turn and City Screen duty manager, has a new arrow poised on his bow.

"Thought I'd let you know about my next theatrical venture, performing a 'straight' script with no silly historical stuff or jugs of bull sperm," he says. "Myself and two other duty managers at City Screen, Peter Rodger and Alison Goldsmith, are putting on a performance of Steven Berkoff's In The Penal Colony at the beginning of April, here in the cinema.

"We're planning to do it in Screen One on the stage in front of the screen and perform late at night at around midnight, and we've already drummed up quite a bit of interest."

Howard describes Berkoff's 1968 stage adaptation of a Kafka short story as a "marvellous play". "Essentially it's a 50-minute conversation between two men, one of whom is describing to the other a torture device and how things work in the colony. We thought it was an interesting play to perform at this time with yet another set of photographs recently released supposedly showing British troops abusing war prisoners in Iraq."

Howard and his colleagues, fellow performer Peter and director Alison, settled on the choice of play before selecting a venue. "We had to look for the right space, and we wanted people to step out of the way they normally see plays, so that's why we're doing it after midnight in the cinema," he says.

"It's interesting to do a piece of theatre so late at night, and logistically too, it was the only time we could do it at City Screen, unless we did it in the morning, when we didn't think we could get the same level of audiences."

Howard, 23, and Alison, 25, graduated from the theatre, film and television course at York St John College in summer 2003; Peter, 24, studied biology at the University of York, finishing his degree the same year. Their new venture came about through "an itchy feet discussion", as Alison calls it.

"It was one of those New Year conversations where you say 'We've got to get out of here and start doing something," she recalls. "So we thought 'Let's put on a play and use the space we've got here at City Screen'.

"In York, there's plenty of youth theatre and lots of musicals and light opera but not this type of theatre. We think a huge number of people want to do something different from amateur dramatics, something more gritty."

In The Penal Colony will be performed at midnight on Tuesday, April 5, and admission will be £3.50, concessions £3, on the door.

"If it goes well and we find there's an audience for this form of theatre, we hope to extend this idea," says Howard.

Updated: 16:26 Thursday, February 24, 2005