ED WAUGH and Trevor Wood already have a few critically-acclaimed plays under their Northumbrian belts.

Their latest, Amazing Grace, is a comedy celebrating the short life of an unlikely heroine, the daring Grace Horsley Darling, who, alongside her lighthouse keeper father William, saved 13 people from the wreck of the SS Forfarshire in 1838.

Their story follows another Grace, who is fascinated by the legendary tale and wants to make a feature film of her namesake.

Set within hearing distance of the heroic events, Grace Armstrong approaches a visiting second-rate Hollywood movie director, Barry Charlton (a delightfully hopeless Sean Wildey).

This is the first fulllength play from Chester-le-Street's Catherine Dryden who conducts both Graces with a never-ending graceful quality. Film content for Amazing Grace is produced by talented Sunderland film makers, Contrapunto.

Trevor Cuthbertson is the man for me though and, despite being the face of soft cheese in Switzerland (that's what it says in the programme), he's a cracking actor. He plays Ted Armstrong, Grace's wheelchair-bound father, narrator and the seasick lighthouse-keeper, all brilliant.

But I absolutely loved his performance as Howard De Winter, the lovey-darling actor in Amazing Grace, which is the film within the play.

I know it sounds confusing, but I promise you this is an easy play with some fabulously funny one-liners. The first half is slightly hesitant and a little under-directed, but the second half pushes the boat out, sailing neatly towards a surprising oar-inspiring end.

TOURING TO

Saturday, Gateshead Old Town Hall (0191-433-6965);
Monday and next Tuesday, Customs House South Shields (0191-4541234);
October 31, Blyth Phoenix Theatre (01670367228);
November 12, Berwick Maltings (01289330999);
Whitley Bay Playhouse, Nov 3 (0844277-2772).