DORSET-based writer Ed Viney’s play Pot Licker is on a tour of Dorset with dates in Exeter and Bath, having its premiere at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre, where it first saw light at a new writing event, on Wednesday and Thursday 12th and 13th March.

The play looks at what happens when three teachers decide to bend the rules after coming across a bag of drugs in their school’s lost property. Rich, Kris and Zara should report the drugs straight away, but the school faces imminent closure, so is there another way to deal with the bag?

“It’s about what happens when good, respectable people do something bad with inevitably disastrous consequences,” says Ed.

Ed Viney took Pot Licker to the first Pipeline Session for new writing at the Lighthouse in January last year. An excerpt was rehearsed and read by actors. “I was relieved when it was well received, and afterwards, in the theatre bar, between Lighthouse and Dorchester Arts, we started a plan of how this might work. The rural touring network Artsreach came on board.

“For me as a writer, to hear the words lifted off the page and spoken aloud by performers is invaluable. That’s when I knew I had something worth developing, and now, a year later, we are getting ready to go on tour.”

Ed has worked with theatres across the south west and nationally, including the RSC, Bath Theatre Royal and Bristol Old Vic.

You can see Pot Licker at Poole Lighthouse (12th and 13th March), Dorchester Arts at the Corn Exchange on 14th and 15th March, Weymouth College Bay Theatre on 18th, The Royal Manor Theatre on Portland on 19th, Halstock Village Hall on 20th, Barnfield Theatre in Exeter on 21st and 22nd March, Bridport Arts Centre on 26th and Bath Theatre Royal’s Ustinov Studio from 27th to 29th March.