“FOR many years they have thought ‘This is my lot in life’, and then something happens and they think things could be different.”

Bradford-based actor John Gully reflects upon the tricky situation in which there couples find themselves in the play When We Are Married, written by fellow Bradfordian JB Priestley, and now touring with Northern Broadsides.

First performed in London in 1938, the comedy revolves around three couples, all married on the same day, in the same chapel, who discover on their silver wedding anniversary that they were not legally married. After the initial shock and worry at the impropriety of their position, they all revaluate their unions.

Pandemonium switches from horrified social embarrassment to the realisation that they are free from the shackles of long tedious marriages. For one husband it provides the chance to assert himself against his domineering spouse, and for two of the wives it offers the prospect of liberation from their stuffy home lives.

John, who lives in Allerton, plays the Reverend Clement Mercer who offers assistance to the shell-shocked couples. “I know the play well and was in it while at drama school in Bradford. There is a crisis and he goes to help. He likes to think he can solve it – but this one is beyond him.”

A well-known face in Northern Broadsides’ productions, he last played a priest in the Merry Wives of Windsor. “I’ve played clergy all this year,” he laughs.

He is joined in the play - which is directed by Barrie Rutter - by actress Kat Rose-Martin, of Wibsey, who takes on the role of Ruby Birtle, the innocent yet cheeky maid from Rotherham, who comes under the roving eye of a drunken press photographer.

“I am really enjoying it,” she says, “Ruby is curious about everything and enjoys watching what is going on and seeing the fiasco pan out.”

The former pupil of Buttershaw High School - now Buttershaw Business and Enterprise College - who honed her craft at London’s Court Theatre Training Company, worked on her Rotherham accent.

“I found a lot of differences between Rotherham and Bradford, so I have had to make some tweaks,” she says. “I like the fact that I am familiar with places that feature in the play, such as the Wool Exchange.”

This is Kat's first production for Northern Broadsides.

The play, which is as much a historical piece as a comedy, is set in the prosperous woollen town of Clecklewyke - an amalgam of Cleckheaton and Heckmondwyke - in 1908.

Adds John, who went to Halifax High School and trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London: “It is very much a Yorkshire play, with one received pronunciation speaker who is described as “la-di-da”. It is a great Yorkshire comedy - perfect for this company.”

The play, which is as much a historical piece, is set in the prosperous woollen town of Clecklewyke - an amalgam of Cleckheaton and Heckmondwyke - in 1908.

“It is very much of its time,” says Kat, “The shame, the public scandal - reactions would now be very different.”

Adds John: “The characters are pillars of the community, so it is shocking and shameful to find that they are not actually married.”

*When We Are Married is at York Theatre Royal Until Saturday September 24, then travels to Hull Truck Theatre until October 1. It is at West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds from Tuesday October 18 to Saturday October 22. It also later visits Scarborough and Halifax.

W: northern-broadsides.co.uk; also visit individual theatre websites for tickets.