FOLLOWING the success of their show Return to Akenfield last year, the popular Eastern Angles are returning to the region with their brand new theatre production The Long Way Home.

FOLLOWING the success of their show Return to Akenfield last year, the popular Eastern Angles are returning to the region with their brand new theatre production The Long Way Home.

The group are renowned for taking groundbreaking and innovative theatre to rural communities, and on Wednesday they will bring their latest offering to the Seagull Theatre, in Pakefield, as part of a 60 date, three-and-a-half month tour.

The Long Way Home centres on a spirited old widow and her pilgrimage across country back to the seaside village of her childhood. As she treks across the land Old Mother, as she is called, meets up with an abandoned dog-boy and a friendship is forged. It is a journey on which they have a series of disturbing encounters, not least with bandits and with ghosts.

To tell the story Eastern Angles use original music, puppetry and storytelling techniques. The cast features Susan McGoun as Old Mother, Theo Deveney as the boy, and James Bolt and Jumaan Short as narrators.

'I am excited by the different ways in which we can present this sort of play and delighted this time to be working with a puppeteer as well,' said director Naomi Jones. 'The narrators are both creators and magical storytellers in the great tradition of this art. And with it there'll be some puppets - but not necessarily entirely what you might expect. There will be some traditional puppetry, some shadow puppetry and what is called object manipulation in which objects become other things in the course of the story.'

Tickets are �7.50 and �8.50. To book call 01502 589726 or 01473 211498 or visit www.easternangles.co.uk

The Eastern Angles will also perform The Long Way Home at Bungay Fisher Theatre on April 20 and 21, and Southwold St Edmunds Hall on May 4.