THE show will go on for a Worcester theatre company after disaster struck just before a new production was about to open.

The Lychgate Players had been in rehearsals since September for a play called Proscenophobia, the technical term for stage fright.

Everything was taking shape for the opening night, which would have been this Thursday, until one of the cast was involved in a car crash.

David Bower, who plays Justin in the play, was driving from Pershore to his home in Meadow Road, Droitwich when his car was involved in a head-on collision with another car.

He suffered a broken right shoulder and a broken left little finger in the crash on Tuesday, November 4.

"It's very painful and very incapacitating," said Mr Bower, aged 61, who works for Wychavon District Council in Pershore.

As Mr Bower was playing one of the play's six characters, the Lychgate Players decided there was no alternative but to postpone the show.

Fortunately, all is not lost. The company usually stages two shows a year at St Andrew's Methodist Church in Pump Street, Worcester city centre, one in November and one in March.

Proscenophobia will now be moved to the March slot.