A play about legendary rugby league commentator Eddie Waring is touring Yorkshire this spring.

Playing The Joker will be presented by leading theatre company Red Ladder.

The play was premiered as part of the A Play, A Pie and A Pint season last year at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds.

It is now touring rugby clubs, kicking off at Headingley Carnegie Stadium in Leeds, on May 3.

There will be a special performance at the Queens Hotel, Leeds, regarded as Waring’s unofficial headquarters, on May 11.

Anthony Clavane, the writer, is an award-winning author and Sunday Mirror sports journalist.

Playing The Joker is described as an emotive look into rugby league’s revered and despised spokesman Eddie Waring.

It is set in December 1977 when the once ‘Good Old Uncle Eddie’ had withdrawn into the protective walls of the Queens Hotel, while a petition was growing to have him thrown off the BBC.

Idealistic rugby league fan Eddie Marlowe, grieving the recent loss of his father, has been eagerly waiting to be alone with his idol, but as the wait lengthens his patience grows thin.

Through song, jokes and drama, Eddie Marlowe voices the betrayal and doubt many fans felt towards Waring’s comedy Yorkshireman persona.

Visit leedsrugby.com for details of the Headingley performance.