As this play opens we are greeted with a scene which will certainly unleash quite passionate emotions in us all, so relatable is the experience of standing at a station to find that your train is cancelled, delayed, redirected or at the very least has switched platforms three times! And it is here that we meet the unleashed ladies who are trying to get away.

This is the third play in Amanda Whittington’s Ladies trilogy, but it is also a stand-alone piece. Ladies Unleashed features a group of old work friends who are having a weekend together on Lindisfarne, prior to the wedding of one of them – almost but not quite a hen do.

Pearl (Gilly Rogers) and Jan (Julia Wilson) know each other well, and all their idiosyncrasies – they can bicker like siblings and castigate the other for their failings but essentially they are tight and supportive and need the friendship. So too, the bride to be, Linda, (Lisa Debney) who is about to marry her girlfriend. Whilst there is the usual affectionate banter about this not-so-unusual wedding, it is clear that Linda’s friends wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

And luckily, despite the best efforts of the train companies to thwart their plans, the group does eventually arrive at their destination. Things are not plain-sailing from this point but of course this is what makes the drama! Complications over accommodation and more significantly the arrival of the ‘wild’ friend, Shelley (Sarah Potter), exacerbates the action. Unloading a variety of half-drunk bottles of spirits from her bag, it is clear that the calm, contemplative atmosphere of Holy Island is about to be disrupted.

These are women with tales to tell. Stories which will resonate with most, if not all, for these are the experiences common to women the world over and are at times, deeply affecting – the children who live too far away to visit, the husband that she should never have married, the ‘fallen woman’ who is just doing what she needs to do to make a living.

What makes this a fascinating piece is the time slippage, as interwoven into the plot are the stories of two women, 200 years apart, with the same dreams and aspirations. Felicity Woodhouse and Rebecca Burrows play Mabel and Daisy, ‘herring girls’ who work gutting fish but dream of the excitement of the music hall. This serves to point up our commonality – how whilst times change, what we want out of life remains the same.

This is a charming piece of theatre with stories told and shared in a refreshingly simple way and directed thoughtfully by Jilly Roper.

It runs at Ilkley Playhouse until 21st April and tickets can be bought by calling the box office on 01943 609539 or on line @ www.ilkleyplayhouse.co.uk