IN 1997 Tamzin Outhwaite was in Alan Ayckbourn's revitalised classic Absent Friends as part of the Old Laundry Theatre's autumn festival.

Not long after, the talented Miss Outhwaite took a leading role as Mel in television's Eastenders and went on to become a household name and an in-demand actress.

More recently, Alison Pargeter, who was in Mr A's Sugar Daddies in last year's festival, has popped up in the gritty cockney soap as Sarah Cairns.

So, is any of the glittering cast in the playwright's latest gem Drowning on Dry Land, running as part of the Old Laundry's 2004 Bowness Theatre Festival from Monday to Saturday (8pm), bound for life in Albert Square?

Former Coronation Street face Stephen Beckett, who played the Street's tall, blonde Doctor Matt Ramsden, is among the play's performers. So who knows?

The new Ayckbourn comedy, which takes a wry look at modern, media-driven society, is apparently really getting the critics excited, claiming its one of his best yet.

Sticking with theatre, popular Lakeland visitors NTC Touring Theatre Company perform Sylvia Cullen's hilarious new melodrama of love and greed Bedazzled, on Friday and Saturday, October 22/23 (8pm), and Love and Madness perform a newly-commissioned stage play of the Charles Dickens novel Hard Times on Wednesday and Thursday, October 20/21 (8pm).

The following week the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) stage three productions: Peter Whelan's play of warmth, charm, passion and grace, The Bright and Bold Design (Thursday, October 28, 8pm) set in the 1930s exploring the true nature of the art of politics and the politics of art; John Arden's epic drama based around a northern mining town in the 1880s, Sergeant Musgrave's Dance (Friday, October 29, 8pm) and North Greenwich, a devised piece from LAMDA students examining the impact of the Millennium Dome on the local Greenwich community (Saturday, October 30, 8pm).

Another key feature of the 2004 Bowness Theatre Festival staged at the Old Laundry is classical music.

Following performances in September by the eminent Peter Cropper and his other world-renowned colleagues of the Lindsays string quartet, classical tunes continue with Shostakovich, Ravel and Beethoven courtesy of another fine foursome the Sorrel Quartet on Monday, October 18 (8pm).

Top-class musicians also feature on Sunday, October 31 (8pm), as one of the finest period instrument orchestras on the planet perform - the Hanover Band of flute, violin, harpsichord and soprano Elizabeth Cragg.

And if it's exhilarating raw energy and thundering rhythms you want big time - then look no further than the Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers, who swing those sticks tonight (Friday, 8pm).

For full details of the festival, contact the box office on 015394-88444.