July 19th to 21st then every Thursday until September at 8pm

Directed by Jessica Hunter

Little Voice is a shy girl who, in Cartwright's likeable if overlong Lancastrian fairy tale, reveals the power to imitate showbiz icons of song. The nervy daughter tethered to a blowsy mum echoes A Taste of Honey. The scene where, having triumphed over a northern club audience, Little Voice is ignored by both her mother and a tacky agent is pure Pygmalion. And the heroine who sheds her imitative talent to be personally empowered reminds one of a stream of plays from Roots to Educating Rita.

The play's most original feature is the burgeoning romance between a tongue-tied electrician, Billy, who loves lights, and the heroine, who hears voices: their tentative wooing, conducted via his cherry-picker, touchingly shows two solitary fantasists coming together.