HAMPSHIRE actress Sarah Parish will soon be disappearing from our Saturday night TV screens after the BBC decided not to make a third series of Atlantis.

But the TV viewers’ loss is our gain as she has returned to the live stage.

She currently stars in an exciting new production of Alan Ayckbourn’s play Way Up Stream which opened at Chichester Festival Theatre this week and runs until May 16.

Sarah, who lives in Alresford, is well known for TV series like W1A, Breathless, Atlantis, Hatfields & McCoys, Monroe, The Pillars of the Earth, Mistresses, Cutting It, Sirens, Impact, Hearts and Bones and Peak Practice ...to name but a few!

But this return to treading the boards is says Sarah a long awaited ‘treat’.

Ayckbourn’s Way Up Stream centres on four old friends, one cruising boat, two weeks off work, and the perfect setting of the beautiful River Orb.

What could possibly go wrong?

Plenty can, and does, in typical Ayckbourn style, as relationships become frayed before the ignition key is even turned.

Waters get even choppier when the troubled crew bump into enigmatic seadog Vince and his bohemian friend, Fleur.

This exposé of the murky depths that lurk beneath the surfaces of friendship, love, desire and power is vintage Ayckbourn.

Following the successful completion of the Festival Theatre’s major redevelopment last year, its stage has been transformed into a river, complete with a real life-size boat.

Sarah told the Daily Echo: “I’ve always wanted to work at Chichester because it has such a fantastic reputation. They do incredible plays.

“My role, of June,is very funny. The play was written in the early 80’s when Alan Ayckbourn was going through a very different phase; he decided to take a much darker turn and this is a good example of his journey from light to dark.

“The character I play is great. She’s quite out there, quite loud and brash. She’s married to Keith who is the skipper of the boat.

They’ve been together since their teens and they don’t get on. Publically it’s a very tempestuous relationship; they are happy to air their laundry in public!

It’s a very ugly relationship but I think there’s a reason and I’m trying to explore why she’s the ‘gobby’ one!

“Ayckbourn is such an amazing writer and his characters are well rounded. The back story is there without being too obvious.”

For Sarah who is seldom off the TV this is a very welcome return to the live stage.

“”It’s been a long time coming; I’ve waited a long time for something like this- for various reasons.

"I was offered lots and lots of TV and wanted to make a living and buy a house but I couldn’t do that if I was just doing theatre as the money’s not good.

"Doing theatre is a treat.

“A year or so ago I started to feel I would like to go back on stage again. It was in my head and I was thinking about it a lot and it just happened: sometimes you just have to put things out in the ether!

“This plays ticks every box!

"It’s set on a real boat and they flood the entire stage.

"It’s built like a fair ride on an electric arm which moves it through the water.

"When the National Theatre did it everything went wrong at first; the stage flooded which was a disaster.

"The play is rarely done because it’s expensive and a technical risk! But this is looking amazing – it’s very, very striking.”

Director Nadia Fall and writer Alan Ayckbourn will be in conversation with author and broadcaster Paul Allen on Monday, April 27 at 5.45pm.

Tickets free but advance booking essential.

Join the technical crew, cast and creative teams for 90 minutes of insight, demonstration and discussion on the making of a production on Thursday, May 7 at 10.30am. Tickets £5.

There will be the chance to meet some of the Way Upstream company at a post-show discussion hosted by author Simon Brett on Monday, May 11.

  • Way Upstream is at the Festival Theatre, Chichester from April 23 –May 16. Evenings 7.30pm (except for Press Night, Tuesday 28 April at 7pm), matinees 2.30pm. Tickets from £10.

To book, go to cft.org.uk or contact the Box Office on 01243 781312.