Rita, Sue and Bob Too cast visit Buttershaw estate

Ahead of a UK tour of the play, written by Andrea when she was a teenager, the actors playing the three lead characters visited her former home on Brafferton Arbor on Buttershaw estate.

The film of Rita, Sue and Bob Too was filmed largely on the estate. Other Bradford locations included Baildon, Great Horton and Haworth.

Described as a "stark snapshot of 1980s working-class life in the North," Diva Productions' tour of Rita, Sue and Bob Too stars Dale Vaughan as Bob, Emma Hooker as Rita and Polly Lovegrove as Sue. It had five star reviews on a Yorkshire tour in 2022.

Andrew Ashley, Artistic Director of Diva Productions, says: “Dunbar’s striking play continues to resonate with today’s audiences. The challenge for us as producers is getting the balance between a nostalgic comic snapshot of the 1980s and a brutal reflection of these extraordinary characters. Many of the play’s themes such as unemployment, poverty, adultery, and, not least, child exploitation still echo contemporary society, which makes this play a stark reminder that we didn’t totally leave these things behind in Thatcher’s Britain.”

Andrew and the cast visited the site of the demolished Beacon pub, which was in the film and was where Andrea collapsed from a brain haemorrhage in 1990.

Outside Andrea's former home (Image: Diva Productions)

Rita, Sue and Bob Too is a bawdy comedy about two teenage girls from a council estate who babysit for affluent married couple Bob and Michelle. When Bob embarks on an affair with both Rita and Sue, sparks fly.

Andrea Dunbar wrote her first play, The Arbor, as a school assignment in 1977. The play, about a pregnant schoolgirl, premiered at London’s Royal Court Theatre in 1980. Andrea was the youngest playwright to have work staged there. The Arbor was later performed in New York. Commissioned for a second play, Andrea, aged 18, wrote Rita, Sue and Bob Too. Another Royal Court hit, it led to Alan Clarke’s film.

Andrea didn’t make judgements or offer solutions to social issues, she wrote about what she knew. Her final play was Shirley, about a teenage girl's difficult relationship with her mother. Like her other plays, it was said to be semi-autobiographical. Andrea had three children and lived for a while in a women's refuge, after fleeing an abusive relationship.

She died aged 29, after collapsing in The Beacon pub, where she often went to write. A blue plaque in her memory is at Brafferton Arbor.

* Rita, Sue and Bob Too is at Victoria Theatre, Halifax, October 18-19. Call (01422) 351158 or visit victoriatheatre.co.uk