The successful stage duo of Anne Smith and Hugh Farey will be reunited when The Conquest Players revive Willy Russell's Educating Rita.

It tells the story of Rita, the feisty hairdresser from Liverpool who wants to better herself by taking an Open University course in English, and her tutor, a disillusioned university professor taking steadily to drink.

She wants sophistication, he loves her lack of it. In the tangle that ensues, it is difficult to decide who has the upper hand.

Director Allan Flaxman, who has recently retired from productions at Queen Elizabeth High School, said: "It's a fast-moving comedy with a very modern theme of education. The battle between Frank and Rita adds an exciting twist to the tale."

The production stars Anne Smith, from Bromyard, who has been with the Conquest Players company for over 20 years, and Hugh Farey, from Bredenbury, who has been with the company for over a decade. Both have won awards at the Herefordshire One-Act Play Festival and have performed together several times before.

Anne said playing Rita has "certainly been a challenge" and thinks the pair's on-stage chemistry will keep the audience entertained.

"I do like Willy Russell as a playwright. He really gets inside a woman's head and the play's as relevant today as it was when he wrote it 20 years ago," she said.

The production, at the Conquest Threatre, Bromyard, runs from Tuesday (March 28) to Saturday, April 1, at 8pm. Tickets are £7, concessions £6. Opening night tickets are two for the price of one.