After last month’s double bill at the Rose Theatre that saw the pairing of plays by Terence Rattigan and Anton Chekhov, the Kingston venue is to host another unlikely theatrical coupling.

While a touring production teamed up Rattigan’s The Browning Version with the Russian writer’s Swan Song for a short run, the Kingston venue is about begin an altogether more ambitious project, with its first repertory season.

Bedroom Farce, by Alan Ayckbourn, will open at the Rose next Thursday and will be followed by a revival of August Strindberg’s Miss Julie a week later. The two plays will then run until November 28 with the two casts drawn from the same company of actors, including Jane Asher, Nigel LeProvost and Lucy Briers.

The Rose’s artistic director Stephen Unwin, who is directing Miss Julie, insists that although the two playwrights are very different, these particular plays are suitable bedfellows and the season’s title, Behind Closed Doors, gives a big clue as to why.

“These are plays about the pain and the comedy in relationships and Behind Closed Doors ties it all together,” he says. “Ayckbourn is English, comic, and forgiving, while Strindberg is tougher, madder and Scandiniavian.”

Unwin is something of a Strindberg evangelist, having written a ‘pocket guide’ to the Swedish playwright, and he is delighted to be taking up the reins of Miss Julie.

“It is an intense, sexy play,” he says. “By doing it on a big stage with a fantastic cast we will show the world what an amazing piece of writing it is.”

The Rose’s director emeritus Sir Peter Hall is directing Bedroom Farce and Unwin says it is that play’s central conundrum which sets it apart.

“There are three marital bedrooms but four couples so you get this fantastic question, how is that going to work?,” he says.

“It’s not a sex farce, it’s more of a comedy about marriage, which I find interesting. So many people are involved in the challenge of the relationship between the sexes.”

Bedroom Farce (October 1), Miss Julie (October 8), Rose Theatre, Kingston, call 0871 230 1552, visit rosetheatrekingston.org