RITA, Sue and Bob Too, the Bradford-set comedy hit of the 1980s, is set for its third revival on stage in recent years. Andrea Dunbar’s dark and gritty play will be performed at the Victoria Theatre in Halifax on October 9 and 10 next year.

Rita, Sue and Bob Too tells the story of two working class girls from a rundown council estate who are about to finish their final year at school. In their spare time, Rita and Sue make money babysitting for married couple Bob and Michelle Behind Michelle’s back, Bob embarks on an affair with both Rita and Sue, who take it in turns with him in his car in the countryside. It is only a matter of time before Michelle and Sue’s parents find out and when they do the sparks fly.

Andrea Dunbar’s semi-autobiographical work is described as a funny, touching and vibrant play, full of wicked humour and is a stark snapshot of 1980s northern working-class life, under an increasingly repressive Tory government.

In 1986, the play was adapted into a film of the same name, and attracted a cult following due to its intimate portrayal of ordinary people’s lives.

Diva Productions, who staged musicals Chicago and The Sound Of Music, and a sell-out revival of Rita, Sue and Bob Too in 2017, will tour the show across Yorkshire in autumn 2021. The producers warn that there will be partial nudity and themes of a sexual/adult nature.

Rita, Sue and Bob Too was performed professionally for the first time at St George’s Hall in 2019, after it was brought back to the staging 2017 by Out of Joint’s Artistic Director Kate Wasserberg and co-produced with Royal Court Theatre and Octagon Theatre, Bolton. The 2017 production was seen by over 30,000 people across the country.

The play was written by the late Andrea Dunbar when she was a teenager and it reflected her own life growing up on a Bradford council estate.

It became a hit film in 1987 with Siobhan Finneran and Michelle Holmes, two young actresses who went on to TV fame in Coronation Street, Clocking Off, Benidorm, Downton Abbey and Goodnight Sweetheart.

Rita, Sue and Bob Too was filmed at locations including Bradford’s Buttershaw estate and the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth.

Visit victoriatheatre.co.uk to book tickets. The production was originally due to be performed this October in Halifax.