Sheffield Theatres' latest show Rock/Paper/Scissors is an ambitious production that takes in all three venues

An epic book turned into a two hour stage show was a heck of a task, but when we spoke there was an even greater challenge just out of shot, as it were, casting a shadow over everything else.

The object casting that shadow is beginning to hove into view.

I say object, it’s actually three objects disguised as one – three plays, all linked, all presented with a single cast across three theatres within spit and coughing distance of each other.

The proximity of the venues is necessary because, not only will Chris Bush’s three plays Rock/ Paper/Scissors be staged with the same cast in nearby theatres, but they will be staged at the same time.

Yes, as in simultaneously.

How?

Well, when we spoke a couple of months ago, Bush admitted that her real challenge at the time was mathematical as much as theatrically creative. The question was how to deal with the practical logistics of shifting a cast from the Studio to the Crucible (difficult, but thanks to backstage corridors, doable) and from the Crucible to the Lyceum (across the public square in front of the buildings – in theory, possible, but may your god go with you).

Now that the three plays are here, with previews beginning last night, it has to some extent from Bush’s point of view become what Douglas Adams called an ‘SEP’, that is to say Someone Else’s Problem.

One of those someone elses is Robert Hastie, the artistic director of Sheffield Theatres and the man responsible for Paper.

The three plays are officially being ‘co-directed’ by Anthony Lau and Elin Schofield, but with a beast this size, there needs to be some sense of who is doing what and for Hastie that means being in charge of Paper, being staged at the Lyceum.

“What’s brilliant is although it’s the same characters and the same location and they share some big overarching themes, each play has its own story to tell,” says Hastie.

“Each play has a theme of its own and in Paper we’re interested in fathers and daughters and in legacy, but also in marriage and what that means. Does it matter if you’re not married on paper? Can you live as a married couple and with a family without getting officially married?

“It’s also a play about creativity as we meet a band setting out on their artistic path.”

The trilogy tells the story of Sheffield’s oldest scissor manufacturer and the three generations feuding over what happens to the factory site.

Hastie has what is often described as the biggest job in British theatre outside of the National, given that he has responsibility for programming the three venues in which Rock/Paper/Scissors are being performed. But for him the staging of Bush’s trilogy provides a rare opportunity.

“I’m particularly excited about doing this play because it’s in the Lyceum, which we don’t produce a lot of our own work in,” he says. “Across our three theatres, it’s the one in which we mainly receive tours of other people’s work – pantomime aside of course – so I’ve not had the opportunity before now to direct in the Lyceum. It’s really exciting, it’s such a beautiful theatre and a very different shape to the Crucible or Studio, which I’ve got used to directing in over the last few years. It’s been a real journey for me, finding out how this particular theatre works.”

Speaking of journeys, the sight of actors sprinting from one side of Tudor Square to make it from the Crucible to the Lyceum as a cast member exits from one play only to turn up in another is going to bring visitors to Sheffield up short, but the question is why?

Well, part of the answer lies in the old saying about climbers and mountains – if only for the challenge of it, but also it is a theatrically exciting thing to do to celebrate Sheffield theatres’ half century, a remarkable anniversary achieved in the face of not small opposition, a story I’ve recounted in previously.

In its 50th anniversary year, Hastie wanted to do something special to mark the moment and the idea of three plays with one cast running simultaneously is pretty special (although not unique – Alan Ayckbourn up in Scarborough has been pulling off such tricks for decades: it’s no coincidence that Hastie grew up in the seaside town within spitting distance of the Stephen Joseph Theatre). It is, both Bush and Hastie insist, no gimmick. The reason for these plays to co-exist is an artistic one.

“We’re telling a very Sheffield story. It’s set in Sheffield, the characters are from here, talking about some of the things we as a city have to think about all the time – what’s our relationship with our industrial past? The legacy that was left by the crafts and skills and the industry that made Sheffield such a powerhouse,” says Hastie. “It’s also asking the question what happens now that we are in an age where there aren’t ninety scissor factories in the city? There are one or two who make very bespoke, beautiful, time-consuming and expensive pieces of cutlery in an age of mass production.

“I think we feel that very keenly at the moment if you look around the city centre; we are always asking how we interact with the city that has been bequeathed to us by our past.”

One way of interacting is to have actors running across the square between theatres. It will be quite the sight.

To July 2. Tickets from the box office on 0114 2496000 or sheffieldtheatres.co.uk