SWANAGE has become one of the latest towns to revive repertory theatre, with a summer season starting in August.

Hordern Ciani, the Somerset-based theatre production company owned and operated by Katherine Mount and Teresa Barlow, will be showcasing three famous plays - Yes Prime Minister, The Secret Garden and the whodunnit The Game's Afoot.

The 400-seat Mowlem Theatre, which last hosted rep theatre in the mid-1990s, will stage the pilot run from August 10-29. However, Katherine hopes to eventually extend this to ten weeks.

Bad Girls actress Nicole Faraday, Hollyoaks' Marcus Patrick, Corrie's Fiona Gordon and Call the Midwife's Charles Armstrong are among the cast now preparing for opening night.

Katherine says the company came to the Mowlem last year, and they'd already been thinking about rep theatre.

"We love the idea," she added. "Rep is starting to come back in a few pockets around the UK, and we were talking to the theatre manager here, and he had been having the same ideas.

"Rep theatre used to be a real tradition, particularly at seaside towns. But it fizzled out about 25 years ago, probably because now we have so many new ways to get our entertainment. But it really was a big thing at the time.

"Basically, you have one company of actors who do a whole series of shows - that is what repertory theatre is. But what we're doing here at Swanage is weekly rep, which is really quite full on.

"It gets really intense when you do a different show every week."

The programme puts a lot of demands on the cast and crew, who will effectively be rehearsing one play in the day while performing another in the evening.

Actor Marcus Patrick said: "At the end of the day you have got three plays to learn and you're not only learning your own dialogue, you have to really know and understand all three.

"When you get three plays like that, it is quite daunting because it is such a mass of work. I divide up pages per day. It all just slowly goes in, well that is what I'm hoping anyway."

Director Robert Marsden says the Mowlem is the perfect venue to bring back rep.

"It is an intimate venue," he explained. "It is right on the seafront, in the heart of the town - it is perfect."

Robert explained that when he got the call from Katherine and Teresa he thought what they were trying to do was so wonderful he had to say yes.

"It is wonderful for the community, the town, the district, as well as for rep theatre across the UK. Any company that really wants to put its roots down in an area and say 'we are here, we are doing plays for this district' has to be deemed a great thing.

"There is going to be something for everybody over the three weeks."

Yes Prime Minister runs from August 10-15, from 7.30pm; The Secret Garden runs from August 17-22, from 7.30pm; The Game's Afoot runs from August 24-29, from 7.30pm.

Visit swanagerep.com to book tickets and for further details on the cast and all three plays.