HER performers have dubbed her the Mistress of Wit.

Dorothy Galvin loves to laugh, to make laughter and to make people laugh.

So it was natural when St Joseph's Players decided to honour the lady who has guided them through more than half-a-century they would choose comedy to showcase her inestimable talents.

"Celebration" - this week's festival of her work - is a heaped, double helping of merriment: two one-act comedies from around thirty years ago.

"Per Ardua Ad Astra" (pictured) is a schoolroom caper from 1968, directed by J B Griffin and featuring madcap performances from Katherine and Joe Roberts, David Farrell, Joanna Yates and Clare Nash.

Look out, too, for Cathie Forrester, a teacher from St Richard's in her debut performance, and teenager Paul Raines, taking a rest from wrestling.

"A Funny Thing Didn't Happen", first produced in 1972, is a farce set at a drama festival.

The likes of Fred Barnes, Terry Talbot, Joan Doorey and Josie Evans will have you in stitches; Marie Hoffman now plays the part originally played by Mary Sutton, now directing, while singer Emma Westhead features in her first play for the Leigh company.

Also in the show: Barbara Mayers, Rufus Bennett, Donna Wood, Peter Galloway, John Dowsett Jnr, Jim Pickering, Brian Griffin, Paddy Costello and David Hodgkinson.

Tickets include cheese and wine as playgoers are asked to join in an informal "Celebration".

The show ends a four-night run tomorrow.

Tickets for both "Celebration" and the company's Francis Durbridge thriller "A Touch of Danger" are available at Boardman's on Bradshawgate, Leigh. Patrons can pay at the door.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.