IN celebration of their 30 th anniversary, LipService have created another comedy classic.

The company, which tours nationally and internationally, has a reputation for its high quality and idiosyncratic comic take on popular culture.

Its latest work is The Picture of Doreen Gray, a treatment of Oscar Wilde’s Portrait of Dorian Gray, and you can see it in The Haymarket on Friday, September 11 at 7.30pm.

Celebrity presenter Doreen Gray has it all but, hitting 50, Doreen suddenly finds her face no longer fits the bill.

At a school reunion she stumbles across a youthful self-portrait and makes a dark and dreadful pact with the picture.

LipService’s Maggie Fox and Sue Ryding have been writing and performing since 1985.

Described by The Independent as “literary specialists and a comedy duo par excellence”, they have won many awards over the years, most recently The Stage Door Foundation Award for Excellence.

They have written 18 original comedies for the stage, had their own series on Radio 4 – nominated for a Writer’s Guild Award - and have twice won the Critics’ Award for Comedy at the Edinburgh Festival.

Founder Maggie elaborates on their new show: “Doreen is a successful radio presenter and she is on TV in a show called Classic Car Club, a sort of Top Gear meets Antiques Roadshow. She is in her fifties and the producers decide to replace her with a younger model.

“She goes to a school reunion and sees the self portrait she did years ago for her A level art. It comes to life and she swaps places with it. The show employs ingenious use of film, with characters stepping in and out of the portrait.”

Basingstoke Gazette:

How did the show come about?

“It was inspired by Sue (who is also one of the writers and performers) attending a school reunion. She hadn’t seen some of the fifty-somethings since she was 18 and it was a shock seeing how people had physically changed over the years.

“It made her think about how one feels on the inside, but how one is treated on the outside, according to looks and how society judges older women.”

How did you first get into writing and acting?

“Sue and I met at University in Bristol, where we were studying drama. We were in an Ibsen tragedy in five very long acts but the audience was on the floor laughing.

“It was certainly a tragedy for Ibsen but the launch of a writing/performing comedy partnership that has lasted 30 years!”

What do you hope the audiences will take away with them when the show is over?

“Hopefully the audience will have plenty of belly laughs but also be moved by Doreen’s story. It is very current with women presenters being replaced on TV, like Arlene Phillips on Strictly Come Dancing.”

If you’ve never experienced the sublime silliness of LipService, now’s your opportunity.

Tickets for The Picture of Doreen Gray at The Haymarket, priced £15, are available from the box office on 01256 844244 or online at anvilarts.org.uk.