AN affectionate adaptation of a classic story is sure to prompt a few tears from the audience at Rossendale Players' next production.

Anne of Green Gables by Sylvia Ashby is adapted from LM Montgomery's novel.

It is a humorous and bittersweet re-telling of the adventures of vivacious redhead Anne Shirley.

Directed by Andrew Rawlinson, the play will display the talents of some of Rossendale's young actors.

The production will be staged at the New Millennium Theatre, Burnley Road East, Waterfoot, from Saturday, February 9, to Saturday, February 16 (except on Monday, February 11).

Performances on Saturday, February 9, and Sunday, February 10, are at 2.30pm only and begin at 7.30pm from Tuesday, February 12, to Saturday, February 16.

Tickets are £5 (concessions £4) and bookings are available by telephoning 01706 228720.

Anne of Green Gables is the first production of 2002 and will be followed by two more productions this season.

John Godber's Happy Families will be staged from Saturday, April 13, to Saturday, April 20 (except Monday, April 15).

The play, directed by Carol Anne Connolly, features graduate John looking back on the embarrassments, tensions, joys and sorrows of family life.

Full of warmth, understanding and Northern humour, Happy Families is an affectionate portrait of an ordinary family struggling with change, bereavement and the generation gap.

Jim Cartwright's Two, directed by Kirsten Dunkley, will be performed from Saturday, June 8, to Saturday, June 15 (except Monday, June 10).

Farnworth writer Cartwright, author of Road and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, received the Manchester Evening News Best New Play award for Two when it was first produced at the Bolton Octagon in 1989.

Life among the motley collection of regulars in a Northern pub is captured by quickfire conversation, warm humour and moments of pure poetry.