STEPPING away from complicated sets, lavish costumes and music, director Lesley Playfer is taking on a new challenge with her latest play.

Yellow Moon opens at Colne Muni tomorrow and runs until Saturday, telling a modern-day take on the Bonnie and Clyde gangster runaways tale.

She first saw the play at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and put it forward for selection by Pendle Borderline – giving the company a chance to question what it takes to stage a play, because Yellow Moon ‘pretty much dispenses with all the usual trappings of drama’.

“When I first saw this play at the Edinburgh Fringe, I was struck by the very stripped-down and direct way it told the story,” Lesley said. “Four actors with four chairs, using the simplest means to get the story across. And a very intriguing story it is too.

“I’ve no problem with complicated productions, after all the last play I directed had a musicians, original music, dancing and puppets! But I think audiences will find Yellow Moon a refreshing change.”

Young Borderline regulars James Bateman and Rosie Butler team up to play Lee Macalinden, is the deadest of dead-end kids in a dead-end town, and Silent Leila, an introverted girl with a passion for celebrity magazines.

They end up on the run together and badly need a place to hide.

James Bateman said: “It’s a challenging play – we’re on stage all the time so there’s no hiding place. But it’s also very liberating; how to tell the story with just our voices and bodies – oh, and the chairs of course.”

Tickets cost £5 in advance by calling the box office on 01282 661234, or £7 on the door. Performances start at 7.30pm.