Show by South Tyneside playwrights is set to head Stateside

Writers Ed Waugh and Trevor Wood will celebrate 15 years of creating plays together this year - after first bursting onto the scene with show Good to Firm.

However, it was the pair’s Dirty Dusting, which helped them to make their mark.

The original Dirty Dusting girls Gwen Doran, Helen Russell and Jean Southern.

Now the show - created in 2004 and telling the story of three cleaners who set up a sex phone line service - is getting set to hit the stages of Florida and New York.

Ed said: “There’s barely a week goes by when we don’t get requests from amateur groups to perform the show.

“It’s recently been performed in London and Spain, and is constantly being produced in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. It’s a phenomenon.

“While it’s very funny, the storyline has resonance about unemployment, older people and job insecurity today.

“People ask why our humour travels to other countries. It’s because working-class humour and working people are the same worldwide.”

The show is set to be make its debut in Florida in February and New York in May.

Meanwhile, the pair’s show Waiting For Gateaux is to be translated into Flemish for a professional run in Belgium in the spring.

The show is about the worst slimming club in the world, and starred Lisa Riley on a UK tour in 2010.

Following time apart to concentrate on solo projects, the playwrighting duo have joined forces again to create The Trouble With Men.

Ed, who has penned a number of solo plays, said: “Sometimes it’s good to have a break to re-charge your batteries and gain other experiences.

“While I’ve been writing and producing, Trevor managed to get on to the highly prized MA in Crime Fiction at the University of East Anglia and has written two excellent novels.

“We have, however, written a very funny and poignant play called The Trouble With Men.

“We offered it to a top star who came to see us last year and she was very keen, but her other commitments got in the way. She’s back on our radar now, so watch this space.”

*Plays written by Ed Waugh which are also set to go on tour include Hadaway Harry - the story of famous Geordie rower Harry Clasper; Mr Corvan’s Music Hall, a play with music by the first Geordie singer/songwriter; and The Joe Wilson Night - about the Bard of Newcastle.