A THEATRE company will be staging its latest production to audiences in Tendring to coincide with the 70th anniversary of novelist George Orwell’s death.

Eastern Angles will be showcasing its new play, called Red Skies, at different locations as part of its spring tour.

The play, written by Ivan Cutting, centres on a fictional meeting between two of Suffolk’s most famous residents George Orwell and author Arthur Ransome.

This comic, clever and at times deeply personal play, probes behind the facade of two famous authors to find the secrets which both inspired and haunted them.

Speaking about his inspiration for the play, Mr Cutting said: “It was one of those lightening-strike moments.

“After directing We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea, our play based on Ransome’s book, I was reading a new biography on Orwell and realised the two authors were so close by in 1939 - it was a way of engineering an imaginary meeting and everything flowed from there.”

The play opens in Southwold just before the outbreak of war, as Orwell’s father is dying.

Arthur, along with his wife Evgenia, are sailing up the coast from Pin Mill.

When Orwell, who is about to write Animal Farm, learns that Evgenia was the former secretary of Russia’s revolutionary leader, Trotsky, and that Ransome used to play chess with Lenin, he hurries down to the harbour.

With their shared interest in fishing, fables and the east coast, the two writers begin a tentative friendship, until a mutual suspicion of spies causes sparks to fly.

The extraordinary links between Orwell and Ransome and the women they loved fuels the flames.

Resolution comes in 1950 with a new decade, and Orwell’s final days.

The theatre company will have 55 performances across 42 venues and they will bring their play to Dedham Assembly Rooms, in High Street, on March 20 and 21, as well as to Wrabness Village Hall, in Station Road, on March 31.

It will also come to the Harwich Arts and Heritage Centre, in Main Road on May 4 and to Brightlingsea Community Centre, Lower Park Road, on May 6.