IF you hear an unusual amount of cockney accents in Evesham or people humming about how much rain there is in Spain, never fear - it's just members of the operatic society tuning their tonsils for their next big production.

Yes, the next treat on offer from the Evesham Operatic and Dramatic Society is My Fair Lady and all the main characters are ready to tackle one of the very best known and best loved of musicals.

My Fair Lady puts to music George Bernard Shaw's timeless story Pygmalion about phonetics expert Henry Higgins accepting a wager to take in a young cockney flower seller - "a prisoner of the gutter" - and transform her into a lady with her roots undetected in high society.

Most people will remember with much affection the film version of My Fair Lady, starring Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle, a role also played on stage for the first time by Julie Andrews.

Now, stepping into their very famous shoes is Evesham mother Maria Williams, who is relishing the opportunity to perform one of the premiere parts for women on stage.

"I'm very excited about it," she said.

Maria, of Broadway Road, has always enjoyed singing and performing and said it was when she sang and danced at primary school that she first realised she enjoyed being on stage.

She was a member of the Prince Henry's Singers at high school and got involved in school plays before joining Evesham Youth Theatre and then EODS.

"Once I went to see the operatic society I knew it was for me," she said. "It takes up a lot of your time, but it's great fun."

A former care assistant, Maria is now a full-time mother to David, aged 13, Emma, 11, and two-year-old Rebecca, also helping her husband, Tim, run Evesham's Ambassador Snooker Club.

Emma is following in her mothers' footsteps on the local stage, said Maria, but in the meantime, all the family members are all getting very familiar with Eliza Doolittle.

"The children are getting to know all the lines as well as me!" she said.

She has tackled many a role, including major parts in Carousel and The Gondoliers, but this is her first time in such a famous part.

She said: "It's the biggest part I've played and one of the biggest parts there is for a woman to play.

"I feel it's a big responsibility to be doing it and I'm looking forward to it with anticipation."

Speech professor Henry Higgins is being played by experienced EODS member Ken Knight, who has appeared in most of the society's shows since he joined in 1983. Audiences will have recently seen him as Jigger Craigin in Carousel.

He also directed the comedy Out of Order for Harvington Amateur Theatrical Society last year.

And Ken's draw to the stage? "They say that acting is the shy person's revenge on the world and there's quite a bit of truth in this," he said.

The other main part is that of Eliza's father, dustman and philosopher Alfred P Doolittle, who sings one of the most popular show-stoppers Get me to the Church on Time. He will be played in the Evesham production by another EODS regular, David Turpitt.

David's credits began with the school choir and several female roles in the school operatic society and continued more recently with the parts of Enoch Snow in Carousel and Emile de Beque in South Pacific. He also sings with the group Fascinating Rhythm.

This will only be the second time EODS has tackled My Fair Lady and it is being performed exactly 20 years after the first production. Cast members are already performing their production of My Fair Lady, which is running at Evesham Arts Centre until Saturday.

6 Flower power: Maria Williams plays Eliza Doolittle in EODS production of My Fair Lady. Y040/29