THERE will be plenty of laughs as Whitefield Garrick Society stages its final play of the season.

The Whitefield group will complete its season of plays with The Prisoner Of Second Avenue, by Neil Simon, which opens on Saturday, May 7, at the Whitefield Garrick Theatre in Bank Street.

Directed by Andrew Close, it follows the escalating troubles of Mel Edison, played by John O’Connell, who is coping with unemployment as a middle-aged man after being sacked from his high-end job.

Set in an apartment in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York, during an intense heatwave, problems worsen as his wife Edna, played by Carole Taylor, is also sacked. The pair are left to deal with their dying plants and problem neighbours before family try to intervene as Mel comes close to a breakdown.

Supported by a cast including Bod Howell as Mel’s brother Harry Edison, real-life sisters Pat Hill and Diane Manship as Mel’s sisters Pauline and Pear, and Jane Murphy as his sister Jessie, it promises to be a dark comedy of errors.

It will finish off a season which opened in September with Salt Of The Earth, a humourous portrait of life in the West Yorkshire coalfields from 1947 to the 1980s.

Audiences have also enjoyed an adaption of Thomas Hardy’s short story The Day After The Fair, Heroes — which followed three First World War veterans — and A Letter Of Resignation which explored the events that lay behind the headlines of Harold Macmillan’s resignation in 1963.

Society member Pat Hill said the group is pleased to have had an excellent season.

She said: “We always strive for a variety with our shows. We have very discerning audience members who enjoy meatier productions such as A Letter Of Resignation alongside some comedy.

“We like to give our audience a bit of everything.

“Rehearsals are going extremely well for the final show.

"It is very funny in a black sort of way.

“It is mainly a two-hander with John and Carole but in the second half the family turn up and try to help. We know what families can be like. The production is full of so many things we would recognise in life.

“We like to end the season with a comedy and I think the audience will go home laughing.”

The Prisoner Of Second Avenue will run until Saturday, May 14, beginning at 7.30pm, with a matinee performance on Saturday, May 14 at 2.30pm.

Tickets cost £8.50 each — £7 each for members — and are available from Saturday. To book, call 07542 564010.