IF you haven't heard of Bernard Farrell, don't worry. Nor had Sam Walters, artistic director of the Orange Tree in Richmond, until he received a copy of the Irish playwright's comedy Happy Birthday Dear Alice. His production now forms part of the summer rep at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough.

"I have to admit that I didn't know of him, but I got hold of the play because Alan Ayckbourn sent it to me about a year ago. We initially had it on reserve for our Richmond-Scarborough co-production and then I said why don't we do it this year?"

Farrell's whimsical social comedy about a dysfunctional family was first staged in Ireland, in Waterford, in 1994 and now receives its English premiere after he posted it off to Ayckbourn on a whim.

"Bernard is a very popular playwright in Ireland, where his plays are done in Belfast and at the Abbey in Dublin, but this is his first play to be put on in England," says Sam. "He's a man in his fifties, I think; he began writing plays in around 1979, and he's now written about 18, as well as for television and radio."

The lack of productions of Farrell's play in England might suggest his work is not suited to a transfer across the Irish Sea. Not so, says Sam. "Happy Birthday Dear Alice could be set in Finland! We have this idea of typical Irish plays but this one is not at all like a Sean O'Casey play. It's not typically Irish, so it could be just as much about an English family as an Irish one."

Farrell had despatched his play to Alan Ayckbourn in the belief it might strike a chord.

"He felt he had a link with Alan in that his work is funny but it also has a point to make. He can make the audience laugh but he underpins his play with a serious point about family relationships, and that's why he thought Alan would connect with it."

In Farrell's play, the son and daughter of an ageing mother are trying to place her in a nursing home for their convenience. The son lives in Basingstoke, the daughter in America, mother in Ireland.

"It's going to be a growing problem as children are not necessarily living in the same country as their parents," says Sam. "The idea used to be that women looked after their children, and then the children looked after their parents but that system was shattered once women said they wanted to go out to work.

"It's a big, big problem because we're all going to live till older, and that's going to happen because we'll eventually stop dying of cancer and heart attacks and just wither away after 120 years. But Bernard's play is very much on the side of old people. They win, so great power to them!"

Meanwhile, Bernard Farrell's latest play, Lovers In Versailles, has just been premiered at the Abbey in Dublin. Who knows, if he sends it off to Scarborough, it might become his second production in England.

Happy Birthday Dear Alice, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, on various dates in the summer repertoire until July 6. Box office: 01723 370541.

Updated: 14:38 Friday, June 14, 2002