A professional touring company that has become a regular visitor to a seaside village is stopping off again - this time with Great Expectations.

The Charles Dickens’ classic tale of destiny, desire and duplicity, is set to be presented by the Rain or Shine Theatre Company in James Reynard’s new adaptation.

The company specialises in bringing classical theatre into the heart of local communities in their new Christmas and New Year tour of village halls and community centres.

Great Expectation is billed as “a family treat”.

The drama unfolds on Christmas Eve, 1823 in a misty churchyard. Young orphan, Philip Pirrip, known as Pip, is about to begin his life of Great Expectations.

Dickens’ thrilling coming-of-age tale is one of excitement, amusement, romance and intrigue and is a ‘who is it’, as opposed to a ‘who-dunnit’, regarding the mysterious benefactor funding Pip’s growth in to a gentleman. Could it be an escaped convict he meets on Christmas Eve, or perhaps Joe Gargery the kindly blacksmith, Miss Havisham the eternal bride, or uncompromising lawyer, Mr Jaggers?

With the boundaries of good and evil blurred, Pip has to learn who is friend and who is foe. Dickens’ Victorian novel of wealth, poverty, love, rejection and conflict is one of the most popular classics of English literature and an enduring tale that has delighted readers, listeners, theatre and cinema audiences for over 150 years.

The show is at All Saints Parish Hall, Scratby, on Saturday January 24 at 7.30pm.

Tickets £10 and £6 for children under 15, £25 for a family of four, via 01493 730178 or 07764 945753.

All proceeds to the Friends of St Margaret’s Church Society.