Play offers insight into Alan Bennett

His autobiographical memoir The Lady in the Van will be staged at the Loft Theatre from Wednesday until Saturday October 30.

A true story that proves conclusively that fact is stranger than fiction, the tale of the feisty and eccentric Miss Shepherd is both a comedy and a moving tale.

The eponymous lady, who lived in a beaten up Bedford van in Bennett’s front garden for some 15 years until her death in 1989, provides the play’s main focus with her enigmatic past as an unsuccessful pianist and failed nun.

But the play’s depiction of Bennett himself is just as revealing.

The playwright appears in two separate guises – one who engages with the increasingly surreal circumstances of Miss Shepherd’s tenancy - and lunacy - and the other who takes a more objective, cynical and retrospective view of events.

Director William Wilkinson said: “In tandem with his signature dry wit and characteristically humorous asides, Bennett is also forced to address some uncomfortable issues provoked by the intimate presence of such a squalid human existence on his doorstep.

“How much should he intervene, how much does he want to intervene and how far can you - should you, do you - extend charity?”

Taking the role of the Lady is Sue Moore and the two Alan Bennetts are played by Howard Scott Walker and Rod Wilkinson.

Performances begin at 7.45pm. For tickets, call 0844 4934938 between 9.30am and 5pm, visit the box office at the theatre in Victoria Colonnade on show nights, or go online.