THE play that earned emerging Ledbury playwright Simon Longman a Channel 4 bursary returns to stages up and down the country this spring as Pentabus tour Milked, Longman's comic and moving depiction of rural unemployment.

First staged in the autumn of 2013, co-produced by Pentabus and The Courtyard, the show will receive its London premiere at Soho Theatre on March 4, with the tour opening on February 25 at The Market Theatre in Ledbury.

Set in the heart of the countryside, the work tells the story of two men in their twenties; Paul, who can’t find a job, and Snowy, who can’t find himself. Inspired in part by the playwright’s own experience of growing up in the countryside, the story explores the realities of life and opportunity for those at the beginning of adulthood, and the pressures facing young people living in rural communities today.

“Milked is a play about growing up in the countryside," says Simon Longman. "About not knowing what you're meant to do despite doing everything that you've been told to do. That moment where a young person's life seems to become directionless, the moment when everything becomes very real, very quickly. It's a play that I wanted to write in response to unemployment and the pressure young people face to do something about it.”

Director Elizabeth Freestone said, “Simon’s writing is witty and humane, honest and playful. Milked is a terrific new play about what it’s really like for the 20-something generation who are trying to carve out a future in places outside of big shiny cities. Milked is urgent, relevant and very funny. Simon won a Channel 4 Bursary with this play and has spent the year with as us our writer in residence. He’s a playwright who understands first-hand the realities of the countryside today and we’re proud to be touring his first play all over the country.”

Although Simon had been writing since leaving university three years earlier, the success of Milked was not something he could have predicted. Until he sent his work to Elizabeth Freestone he hadn't had the confidence to show it to anyone. He credits award-winning playwright Tim Price’s For Once (produced by Pentabus), which, like Milked, looks at life in a small rural town, with providing the catalyst for sending it to Pentabus.

“It was an inspirational play for me,” he said, “because it was a really, really good story about an area I’m very familiar with. It gave me the confidence to think that maybe stories from this area need to be told, and can be told, so I sent my play to Elizabeth and she saw something in it.”

Milked is at The Market Theatre in Ledbury on Wednesday, February 25. To book, call the box office on 07967 517125 or visit themarketheatre.com

It can also be seen on March 17 and 18 at Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury. To book, call 01743 281281 or visit theatresevern.co.uk