MAGGIE Fox and Sue Ryding, who as Lip Service bring their new show The Picture of Doreen Grey to The Courtyard next week, have been working together since leaving Bristol University in 1985, where they had been put together in a production of Ibsen's The Lady from Sea, which didn't get quite the reaction they'd anticipated.

"The audience was on the floor laughing," Sue recalls. "So we kind of realised we had comic potential." She does add, in their defence, "that it was a very very bad translation of the play and we'd not done enough rehearsal."

But the die was cast and Maggie and Sue took advantage of their comic potential and their very different physiques, one tall, the other small, and hit the alternative cabaret circuit, where, says Sue, they irritated managers and bookers with their insistence on bringing along props and costumes. "We always had characters and props. It was a good way to hone our skills but we ultimately became dissatisfied with being the only women and always having to fight for our place on the bill.

"So we thought 'why not write comedy plays and people can come and see just us'."

The first of their award-winning plays was based on girls' comics: "We were reading Bunty annuals, which had the most ridiculous and hilarious stories, so we wrote a show called Girls in Orbit - women really really loved it, having been brought up on Bunty!"

They moved on to literary classics next, with their 'smash hit' Withering Looks. "We wrote it in 1988 and it's been re-written over the years, spurred on by the Bronte Parsonage, who have taken us to their bosom. We were very scared of them seeing it but they love it, and it's a very affectionate take on the Bronte sisters. And it's less about them than it is about the heritage industry - Haworth even has a Bronte Balti!"

And it was a school reunion that ignited the spark that led to the creation of The Picture of Doreen Gray: "It was the first time I'd been back since I was 18," says Sue, "It was shocking to see 55-year-olds when you think you are going to meet 18-year olds! The baffling thing is the disconnect between how you look on the outside and how you feel on the inside. That and knowing that my son had had to paint a self-portrait for his GCSE art then came together."

Celebrity presenter Doreen Gray has it all - a drive time radio show, a high ratings lifestyle programme and a career that is the envy of all her old chums. But hitting 50 she finds her face no longer fits the bill. At a school reunion she stumbles across a youthful self portrait and makes a dark and dreadful pact with the picture that will come back to haunt her.

The Picture of Doreen Gray is part of The Courtyard’s Love season; audiences can get 10 per cent off when purchasing tickets to two or more Love themed shows!

The Picture of Doreen Gray will be at The Courtyard on Saturday, October 17 at 7.30pm. To book, call the box office on 01432 340555 or visit courtyard.org.uk