THIS month brings a breath of fresh air to live theatre with a promising new play at Teignmouth’s Ice Factory theatre.

Friday’s Child is from the pen of local playwright Austin Hawkins, whose one-act plays have won a clutch of awards in recent years.

This will be the premiere performance of his first three-act play, and Teignmouth Players have entrusted it to veteran director John Miles, well known in the South Devon acting and directing scene.

Austin explained: ‘Friday’s Child is the story of Sharon, focusing on her nose-thumbing attitude to respectability. It is easily understandable, but why did she leave home for a life on the streets?

‘The middle-class facade of the Hursts is not all it seems; and what suburban secrets are masked behind those damask drapes?

‘Alan and Mary Hurst are predictably going about their lives – he an insurance executive and magistrate and her a pillar of the community, belonging to the bridge club and the townswomen’s guild, and doing charitable works. When Alan’s chance meeting with the feisty Sharon triggers a chain of unwelcome and challenging revelations, it exposes how a marriage that conceals fault lines deep beneath the surface can be brutally tested when provoked by circumstance.

‘I tapped into a fascination for how, triggered by a relatively small and impulsive decision, normal and stable lives can suddenly be upended.’

Friday’s Child runs from November 14 to 18 daily with a Saturday matinee.