The Rotherham Rep are celebrating their centenary year in 2026, and for their second production this year, after the hugely successful Macbeth shows, they are presenting the hilarious and raunchy comedy: Dirty Dusting, where three elderly cleaning ladies start up a telephone sex line.
When three cleaners, Olive, Gladys, and Elsie, are threatened with redundancy, they feel that their lives are coming to an end. That is, until a chance wrong number gives them a new business idea: why not run a telephone sex line? They’ve got motive, opportunity, and a lifetime of experience… some more than others, mind you.
Provided Elsie can teach the other two a few new tricks, there’s no reason why they can’t get rich quick, as long as they can keep their operation a secret from their bosses, their husbands, their children, and their grandchildren.
Dirty Dusting premiered at the Customs House, South Shields in February 2003 and hasn’t stopped since. Two runs at Newcastle Theatre Royal were followed by tours of Scotland, England, and Ireland, including a month-long run at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin. It has returned to Scotland and Ireland on several occasions and recently toured New Zealand and Australia.
Dirty Dusting is a hysterical, laugh-out-loud, heart-warming comedy. See it at Rotherham Civic Theatre from Tuesday 2nd to Friday 5th June, with curtains up at 7.30pm daily. Tickets cost £11.50 (concessions £9.50) from https://rotherhamtheatres.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173664733.