The return of Martin Guerre

The much-noted presence of international producers, Cameron MacIntosh and Hal Prince, at The Abbey's production of Tarry Flynn in January has resulted in a challenging commission for the play's adaptor and director, Conall Morrison. The 32-year-old Associate Director at the Abbey has been invited by Cameron MacIntosh to direct a "radically revised" version of the musical, Martin Guerre, which was written by Alain Boublil, with music by Claude Michel Schonberg. David Bolger, who choreographed Tarry Flynn, will work with Morrison on the movement. The show, which has never quite made it into the Cats and Miss Saigon bracket, has been staged in London in two previous versions - neither of which was completely successful. It has not yet, apparently, been realised to MacIntosh's satisfaction. "This is a completely re-thought project," Conal Morrison says. "We have gone right back to the basics." Initially "feeling intimidated" by being catapulted into the glitzy and financially risky world of international musical theatre, Morisson says he is now "caught up in the collaborative process, with everyone sharing the same objectives and simply concerned with getting the story right and seeing how the show can develop."

The medieval French legend about a man who returns from war after years' absence, claiming to be the husband of a woman who does not recognise him, is an enduring exploration of love, faith and identity. There have been two film versions, the French Le Retour De Martin Guerre, directed by Daniel Vigne, and Jon Amiel's Hollywood remake, Sommersby. Auditions began in London yesterday for the new production, which is planned to open in mid-October in the West Yorkshire Playhouse, before touring England and Scotland. In the meantime, Morrison directs a new Gary Mitchell play, As The Beast Sleeps, in the Peacock in June, and a new version of Boucicault's The Colleen Bawn at the Abbey in August, before bringing Tarry Flynn to London's Royal National Theatre (at the Lyttleton) in the last two weeks of August. This proved to be a logistically simpler option than to take the show to the Edinburgh Festival, which was a possibility at one point, but which would have required the expensive conversion of a venue to accommodate the scale of this production.