THE debut play by Colchester playwright and Gazette Arts Editor Neil D'Arcy-Jones is getting its hometown debut next month.

In Search of England, which had a short run in London back in 2015, tells the story of George, a man who has returned to England to find out what it means to be English in the 21st Century.

Neil says: "I was actually inspired by an old travel book written by one of my literary heroes, H V Morton.

"He wrote it back in 1927 and you could say it was the forerunner for works by the likes of Bill Bryson and Mike Parker with Morton going around the country meeting people and basically getting an essence of the place.

"It kind of got me to thinking what Morton might think of England now if he did a similar trip but then of course Brexit and Ukip took hold and the play became a little bit political all of a sudden."

After its week at Theatre N16, Neil applied and got on to the Mercury Theatre's Early Careers Training Programme to develop his theatre-making skills and while the design was to hone his writing, the result has been him ending up as a theatre producer as well as a playwright.

He explains: "I've been writing professionally for more than 18 years now as part of the team here at the newspaper but also outside of journalism as well.

"My first forays into theatre were putting on family shows, the first of which was a children's sequel to The Tempest, which was performed on the Packing Shed Island off West Mersea. I produced that as well as the follow-up The Battle of Lilac Lawns, which was my World War I play that took place at St Martin's Church and Layer Marney Tower."

After leaving the Training Programme, the Mercury offered Neil a slot in their Studio space and relishing the chance to produce some more work he set up The Packing Shed Theatre Company.

"The idea of the company," he adds, "is to produce new work by writers based in the East but have that work created by talent also based in the Eastern Region.

"Since doing the Training Programme I've discovered so many incredibly talented professionals living right on my doorstep and of course through my job I know how brilliant the local community theatre scene is.

"One of the main aims of the company is to try and bring those two worlds together, giving people from that community scene a chance to see what working with a professional company is like and may be persuade them to pursue a career in it."

Directed by Will Parrick and starring Charlotte Luxford, Adam Duarte-Dias and Tom Edwards, In Search of England runs at the Mercury Studio Theatre from March 9 to 11 at 8pm with an extra matinee on the Saturday at 3pm.

For tickets go on-line at www.mercurytheatre.co.uk or call the box office on 01206 573948.