NEXT week, the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds brings its production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to Harrogate Theatre.

This Tennessee Williams play was memorably made into a multi-award winning film starring Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor, and is regarded as a twentieth century classic.

Set in the Fifties amid the heat of the Mississippi Delta, it seethes with family tensions, suppressed sexuality and the whisper of scandal.

Director, Colin Blumenau, says of the production: "As layer after layer of pretence are stripped away and a certain amount of basic human instinct is laid bare, the play leaves an indelible imprint on the watcher."

Tickets start from £6. Shows run from Tuesday to Saturday at 7.30, with matinees on Wednesday and Saturday at 2.30.

Following on from the successes of the autumn season, for the first time in six years the theatre will produce two shows in its spring/summer season.

The first, the Fats Waller musical Ain't Misbehavin', launches the new season on February 13 for a week-long run of jiving and jitterbugging in the aisles.

The show, a major Broadway hit, will recreate Thirties Harlem when dance halls and speakeasies reigned, and features favourite songs such as Honeysuckle Rose and Black and Blue as well as the title tune.

The second Harrogate Theatre production is Alan Ayckbourn's The Things We Do For Love (April 2-24) which takes a witty and cruel look at love - living without it, the desire for it, and falling head over heels in it.

Other touring shows for the season include a visits in May by the Compass Theatre Company with a production of Sheridan's The Rivals and the Reduced Shakespeare Company with its latest show All the Great Books (abridged)

March brings a Harrogate Theatre festival of new performance with the En Masse Theatre Company's production for children of Echo Chamber, the true and spooky story of an ill-fated Victorian family, followed by a masked play about Marc Chagall.

Visiting performers include magician Geoffrey Durham, Abba tribute group Voulez Vous, Poet Laureate Andrew Motion and Ken Dodd.

Other musical choices range from Some Like it Hot with the Charleston Chasers to Cosi Fan Tutti by Opera Box.

The theatre is currently enjoying a surge in audiences following a low point 38pc of capacity seven years ago. Now attendances are well above the 70pc mark.

For full programme details, contact the theatre on 01423 502116.