DEVIZES' newest theatre company, the Northgate Theatre Company, presents The Belle of Amherst by William Luce, at the Wharf Theatre, Devizes, on November 13 and 14 at 7.30pm.

When American Emily Dickinson was in her early 20s, the erstwhile vivacious and sociable college girl decided to become a recluse and dedicate her life to writing poetry. After that she rarely set foot outside her father’s house in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her work was too advanced for her day and was never published under her own name in her lifetime.

But her life was by no means grim and joyless and William Luce presents a picture of a woman enraptured by the wonder of nature while carrying on a number of affairs of the heart, albeit at a distance.

Helen Wuscher, who plays the poet and is a founder of the Northgate Theatre Company, studied at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and has a lifelong love of the poetry of Emily Dickinson.

Helen is well-known for her appearances at the Wharf in such shows as The Glass Menagerie, Blood Wedding, The Bald Prima Donna and, most recently, In the Manner of Marilyn.

This will be the first performance of the production, and the company are already booked to take it to the Mission Theatre in Bath in February and, hopefully, to the American Museum in Bath later next year.

Tickets, £10, concessions £8, are on sale at Devizes Books on (01380) 725944.