MENOPAUSAL women, with fading looks, midlife crises and the hots for Daniel O'Donnell might be a scary prospect for theatre-goers of the male persuasion but Amanda Hurwitz believes any man brave enough to enter Derby Theatre to see Women on the Verge of HRT will be just as entertained as their better halves.

"Most of the audience will be women of a certain age," says Amanda. "Having HRT in the title puts men off. They aren't used to seeing women laughing at themselves but I think they might find it amusing and it will make it easier for them to understand what women over the age of 40 do go through.

"If men are brave enough, they will get a lot out of it."

The Marie Jones comedy is about best friends Vera and Anna who have little in common apart from being "the wrong side of 40, having husband troubles and an undying love of Irish singing sensation Daniel O'Donnell".

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Amanda is something of an expert on the show and its sequel, having played both major characters.

"In this show I play Vera, the more confident, angry, sexy one. But in the sequel Women on the Verge: Get a Life I played Anna, the more dowdy one, stuck in a loveless marriage," she says. "As far as I know I'm the only actress to have played both women.

"I did the sequel at the Opera House in Belfast and the Gaiety in Dublin. To do it Belfast was great as Marie Jones is a great heroine there and still lives there."

So what does Amanda thinks is the secret of these two hit shows? "You often get angst-ridden women over the age of 40 talking about the menopause and how awful it is and this is a way that women can laugh at and with themselves," she says. "I think that's a great release for women to do that.

"Vera and Anna are almost opposites but they are really close friends and they fill in the gaps for each other. Anna represents about 90% of women and Vera is the other 10%, and at a much more difficult place in he life because her identity has always been her sexuality. She's been always been considered attractive. It's therefore much more frightening for her to look into the future and think she will no longer be attractive and have the pick of men.

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"She and her husband have split up and he's found himself a girlfriend 25 years younger than her and they have just had a baby together and that's eating Vera up as she's so annoyed that nature doesn't make it possible the other way round. He's been able to start his life again but she can't."

The play follows Anna and Vera on a pilgrimage to Donegal to see their idol.

"Marie went up to see Daniel at Donegal and that's where this play came from - looking at these women and what they got out of it," says Amanda.

"I think Daniel's almost a blank canvas women can put what they want on to. He's safe. I don't think with women who like him that it's sexual, it's more that he's a man who would pay attention to them, take them seriously."

"Marie is a great observer.

She sees things in people and has a great ear for dialogue and is aware of what ordinary people do and what their lives are.

"I hope women will have conversations with each other and say, 'Have you ever felt like that?'.

"It's not just a broad comedy - it can make you laugh and cry as well."

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