GRASSINGTON Players are returning with their Spring production, You Stupid Darkness! by Sam Steiner, a contemporary play about the struggle for optimism and community amid the chaos of a world falling apart.

Set in a cramped, crumbling office, four volunteers spend a few hours every Tuesday night on the phone telling strangers that everything is going to be okay. As the outside world disintegrates, they teeter on the edge of their own personal catastrophes. Their hopes and fears become entangled as they try, desperately, to connect with the callers and with each other.

Before the first lockdown, the play was originally chosen for performance in 2020 by Katie Milner, who is making her directorial debut with the Players. She says: “I loved the idea of four vastly different people coming together in this Samaritans-style office to instil a little hope to strangers over the phone, despite the ambiguous, but environmentally catastrophic situation going on outside. After two years and several postponements I am so excited to finally be bringing this play to audiences. With everything that’s going on in the world currently, this play seems to be growing more poignant by the day.”

Described as a ‘hilariously bleak show’ by the Guardian, You Stupid Darkness! is a uniquely thought-provoking play and definitely one for discussion in the bar afterwards with the cast.

The play contains strong language and distressing content.

Performances will be on May 26, 27 and 28, 7:30pm at The Octagon, Grassington Devonshire Institute. Tickets £10, £8 for full-time students.