PLAYS by Peter Pan creator J M Barrie and Alan Bennett form a double bill at Studio Theatre on March 10 and 11 under the title Great War/Cold War.

Both plays - Barrie's The Old Lady Shows Her Medals and An Englishman Abroad by Alan Bennett - will be entered into the one-act play competitions held in Totton and at the Woolstore Country Theatre in Codford later in the month.

Barrie's The Old Lady Shows Her Medals, written and first performed a century ago in 1917, offers equal measures of comedy and pathos. Charlady Mrs Dowey, played by Sue Bale, is horrified to learn that her son (James Paterson) is on leave from the trenches and is on his way to see her, but all is not as it seems.

An Englishman Abroad is Bennett's gem of a play, based round the recollections of actress Coral Browne (Rachel Fletcher) about her encounter with defector Guy Burgess (David Taylor) while she was on tour to Moscow in 1958 - and the strange request he slipped into her coat pocket.

Director Lesley Bates says: "These are two contrasting plays with common themes from different periods of British history - one in the midst of the first world war and the other when the Cold War was at its height."

There are just two performances at Studio. Tickets, £8, are available from the box office at Salisbury Information Centre, Fish Row on 01722 342860. Performances start at 7.30pm.