Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory (SATTF) make their debut visit to the Rose Theatre with a tragic-comic masterpiece, The Cherry Orchard.

The production, by Anton Chekhov, tells the tale of a charming but feckless Madame Ranevskaya, who returns home to Russia after five years in Paris with her lover to face looming bankruptcy.

Played by Julia Hills, who starred in the original Calendar Girls, the female lead could sell her magnificent cherry orchard to save her whole estate or ignore all advice and court disaster for herself and her family.

The Cherry Orchard is SATTF’s third Chekhov production following the successful Three Sisters in 2005 and Bristol Old Vic co-production of Uncle Vanya in 2009 and transfers to Kingston from Bristol.

Stephen Unwin, the Artistic Director of the Rose, said: "I'm delighted to have Bristol's Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory finally coming to Kingston.

"Chekhov's final tragi-comic masterpiece is a classic nobody should miss."

The play, which has been translated by Stephen Mulrine, also features Simon Armstrong as the brash entrepreneur, Lopakhin.

A free post-show witty monologue of Chekhov’s On the Evils of Tobacco will be performed on Wednesday and Friday evenings by Paul Brendan in the Rose Theatre’s Culture Cafe. The hen-pecked Nyukhin tries to obey his wife’s command to lecture on the evils of tobacco but only succeeds in revealing the comic absurdities of his life.

Andrew Hilton, Artistic Director at Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory said: "We are thrilled to be bringing The Cherry Orchard to the Rose, and hope that it will be the first of a long partner¬ship."

The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, translated by Stephen Mulrine at The Rose Theatre, High Street, Kingston. From Tuesday, May 15 to Saturday, May 19. Tickets £8 to £22. Phone 08444 821 556 or visit rosetheatrekingston.org.