Exploring secrets, sex... and toilets

Close Enough To Touch goes on tour this autumn. Pic: Mark Ratcliffe/Split Design

Leeds-based Red Ladder Theatre Company and Hull’s Silent Uproar have joined forces to produce Close Enough to Touch, a one-person drama about secrets, sex…and toilets written by new playwright Henry Roberts.

The show, starring Yorkshire actor Stefan Race, will tour to venues across the north this autumn , including Waterside in Sale (October 16-17); Queen's Mill, Castleford (October 20); Junction, Goole (October 21); Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield (October 22); Leeds Playhouse (October 23-24); Hull Truck Theatre October 28); Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough (November 9). Full list on the link below.

What happens when our deepest urges are shrouded in shame? What happens when we can’t articulate our desires, even to ourselves? Close Enough to Touch follows a man who has a girlfriend - and a secret.

Audiences are taken into the taboo world of "cruising" – anonymous sex in public places. As our nameless character’s secret builds, so does his shame. The play swings between passion, pathos and humour.

Playwright Henry Roberts, whose script was long-listed in the RSC 37 Plays project, said: “I wanted to explore the ambiguous sides of our desires; the desires that aren't easy to categorise or label, that may be contradictory to who we feel we are as people."

Red Ladder’s artistic director, Cheryl Martin, who is directing the play, said: “Henry is a brilliant new northern voice and his powerful script tells the kind of story you don’t come across every day.”

More info and tickets here. Recommended age rating 16+