GILL Adams has been so busy with television, radio and film work, and with her Hull University writer-in-residence commitments, that Something Blue will be her first stage play for five years.

Originally conceived as a radio piece but now at home on the stage, Something Blue forms the third and concluding play of the First Foot season of writers new to Scarborough but not new to playwriting.

"It's shameful that I've not written for the stage since Jump To Cow Heaven the First of Fringe Firsts winner at Edinburgh in 1997 but you do get sucked in by telly," says the Hull writer, left. "So it's fantastic to be back in the theatre, working with actors, interacting with the director, Laura Harvey - and I've never had one of my plays directed by a woman before, so that's good too."

The play was inspired by real-life events on the funeral day of Diana, Princess of Wales in September 1997, involving wedding-party preparations at a Hull hair salon run by the partner of one of Gill's relatives.

"What a gift for a writer. He was telling me it was such an extraordinary day where they'd arrived at 6.30 in the morning and it was a struggle to get them out again as they had the telly on, and they'd keep having to re-apply the make-up because it would run as they were crying so much. They'd be feeling melancholic, then up, then sad again," Gill recalls. "To write a play about Princess Diana didn't appeal but to write a play with bits of that day in it, and the issues it raised, that did appeal."

Something Blue is a play about motherhood, family and friendship, set in a trendy high-street beauty salon, as a bridal party rides an emotional rollercoaster on Diana's funeral day. Mud packs, mother-in-laws and the bitter truth all must be faced on a day for love, courage, honesty and unexpected celebrations as much as tears.

Several of Gill's plays have been premiered by Hull Truck but this time the invitation came from Alan Ayckbourn up the East Coast at Scarborough.

"We were both at this very posh meal being given by the Dean of Hull University when I was writer-in-residence. I was a bit out of my depth; I had my cleavage out - I felt like Rita in Educating Rita!," she recalls. "Anyway, I told Alan I hadn't seen any of his plays but he said 'Well, I know yours' - and he asked me to write one for Scarborough!"

She had no qualms about writing for a theatre so synonymous with Ayckbourn's works. "I'm not a new writer; I have my own voice," she says. "I think you can tell a Gill Adams play - and it's just marvellous to be writing a stage play again."

Something Blue, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, March 5 to 16. Tickets: £7.50; ring 01723 370541.

Updated: 08:59 Friday, March 01, 2002