LEWIS Cowen is in the director’s chair as The Wharf Theatre, Devizes, prepares to put on its first offering of 2019 with Chapter Two written by Neil Simon.

Tickets are now on sale for the production which will be on stage from January 28 to February 2 at 7.30pm each night.

The comedy gets its laughs from the chaos which ensues when novelist George Schneider, who is still grieving the loss of his wife Barbara, is set up on a date with actress Jennie Malone by his brother Leo.

Jennie has gone through years of counselling and a messy divorce and neither of them consider themselves ready for a new relationship.

However the relationship proves unexpectedly successful.

Karen Ellis from The Wharf said: “This is Neil Simon at his hilarious best, his sparkling dialogue softening the edge of what is, at heart, a serious examination of what it means to lose one’s partner.

“His semi-autobiographical Chapter Two examines what it truly means to love someone and whether it is possible to find a soulmate more than once in a lifetime.”

Tickets costing £12 or £10 for under 16s can be bought from Ticketsource at:/www.ticketsource.co.uk/the-wharf-theatre/events or at the Devizes Community Hub and Library on Sheep Street, Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm or by ringing 03336 663 366.

A new brochure giving details of what else is to be performed at The Wharf is now available from the Community Hub and Library and many other outlets around Devizes.

Mr Simon, who died aged 91 in August in his native New York City was a celebrated writer for stage and screen. He originally gained fame in the 1960s with comedies including The Odd Couple and Barefoot In The Park.

In 1991 he won the Pulitzer Prize For Drama with Lost in Yonkers.