NORTH Yorkshire touring theatre company Badapple is to celebrate 20 years with a restaging of its first play, Amy Johnson, in rural venues up and down the country from April to June.

Director Kate Bramley’s drama follows the life of the Hull-born aviatrix, Amy Johnson, who was first woman to fly solo from the UK to Australia.

During the Second World War she played a vital role as one of a team of female pilots working as auxiliary personnel and the production features a 2/3 replica bi-plane.

The play celebrates Amy Johnson's pioneering career and explores her final mysterious journey. She died aged 37 after her plane came down in the Thames Estuary on January 5, 1941, in circumstances that have never been fully explained.

Said Ms Bramley: "I started out as a professional director and Amy Johnson was the first full-length script I wrote. Seventeen plays later, I feel I have developed my own distinct voice as writer and am excited to go revisit this story with the benefit of those years of experience and a new adaptation. The plane is the same though!”

The tour will start in Yorkshire before travelling through the Midlands to Surrey, Gloucestershire and finally Somerset.

A replica Gipsy Moth biplane built for the original show won the Glenn Willoughby design award and still has a central role in the drama. It was designed by set designer and air enthusiast, Andy Newell, and built by John Bramley.

In the year 200o it was donated to Sewerby Hall, and now resides permanently at Dumfries and Galloway Aviation Museum which has loaned it for the tour.

Badapple Theatre Company is one of the most prolific and original rural touring companies in the UK with a mission to take first-rate shows to small rural venues.

Amy Johnson stars actors Sarah Raine and Frances Tither and has original songs and music by Jez Lowe, Sony award-winning singer-songwriter who recently worked with Michael Morpurgo on a BBC Radio 2 collaboration , Alone on a Wide Wide Sea.

Dates and venues in this region include: April 6, Ripley Town Hall (01423 339168); April 26, Saltburn Theatre (01287 624997); April 27, Reeth Memorial Hall (01748 884759); April 28, Yarm Fellowship Hall (01642 888786); May 13, Sheriff Hutton Village Hall (01423339); May 23, Sawley Village Hall (01765 620382).

For full details tel 01423 339168 or email badappletheatre.com.