As an actor who has become a familiar face on one of the nation’s favourite soaps, Christine Mackie has had to learn a whole new discipline when it comes seeing a play she has written take to the stage.

This week Kin returns to the Dukes Theatre in Lancaster before heading off on tour ending with a series of dates at Home in Manchester at the end of October.

It marks the return for the play about sisters in law who meet for the first time in years at the funeral of a man who was important in both of their lives.

It initially had its debut at the Dukes’ in 2022.

“I’m delighted Kin going to go out in the world; it’s a bit of a thrill to be honest,” said Christine, best known to TV viewers as Dr Susan Gabbas on Coronation Street.

“It was thrilling to see it at the Duke’s when we first did it but it was only for a few nights.

Roberta Kerr and Kerry Willison-Parry in Kin

“As I writer - I think I can say that I’m a writer now - it’s not many shows to see how things really work and bed in and to see how people respond, so I knew I really wanted it to have another go.”

Giving Kin an extended run on the road followed a meeting Christine had with Hannah Ellis-Ryan of Her Productions.

“I was just picking her brains really but when I told her about Kin she asked to see the script and then just said ‘I’ll do it’.” said Christine. Fellow Coronation Street star Sue Jenkins immediately came on board as director and Roberta Kerr and Kerry Willison-Parry will both be reprising their roles as Kay and Steph, the central characters.

“It still feels a bit of a dream if I’m honest,” said Christine. “As well as being relatively new to writing - Christine had penned Bad Girls which had run at the Edinburgh Festival in 2019 - I was absolutely green when it came to sitting in an audience and watching people respond to the words I’d written.

“When we did Kin the first time we gave out pieces of paper asking for feedback and I was genuinely overwhelmed by the number of responses we got. Most of them were very supportive and very specific about what they liked or what it made them think about. That shared response was wonderful.

“With a couple of things I though ‘that’s a really good point’ so although I can’t say audience reaction has changed the original draft, it has certainly informed it.

“Overall the play has not changed but there are some subtle changes. I feel immensely lucky to have had the opportunity be able to work on it with a view to seeing it back on its feet with the same team.”

Christine had a very clear motivation when she started to write Kin.

“Although it is a couple of years on, some of the prompts that made me want to write it in the first place are still there,” she said. “One of which is the representation of older women can be underwhelming and stereotyped.

“My ambition was to create play where two older women are absolutely front and centre of this drama; they are very funny and take the action on. They are not just on the periphery or passing through. And they definitely never talk about their age – that’s not the point.

“Women like me in their sixties still have things to do, lives to live and contributions to make and yet they are so often overlooked.”

With a successful career on stage and TV - last year Christine played King Lear in an acclaimed production at Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre - was she tempted to cast herself in Kin?

“When I first had the idea for Kin around 2020 it was a bit dead and I wasn’t getting much work. I thought I’d write this play and do it myself.

“I just started it but as I got going I got less interested in being in it which was a bit of a surprise.”

Christine believes that her acting experience has helped her shape the work.

“When you get a script as an actor you get a sense when you read it what will land well and what will work,” she said. “So I did have that experience but I still wanted to hear how what I had written would work and the only way to do that is to hand it over to the director and the actors.

“It was a bit of a revelation and also slightly terrifying on that first day of rehearsal. But then I spent most of it sorting out everyone’s parking so that kept me grounded!”

When Best Girl ran at the Edinburgh Festival in 2019 Christine was described in one review as an emerging writer.

“When I first saw that I laughed,” she said. “I felt so old. But then I thought, actually that’s true I am emerging. Then recently I read an article that although there are opportunities for new writing often people 40-plus are just dismissed.

“But when you have lived a life, you have things to say and perhaps things from your life you may want to share. Best Girl was semi-autobiographical and had a resonance for audience far more than I expected.”

With Kin hitting the road, Christine hopes the work will continue to grow.

“I’d love for it to have another life which doesn’t come from me making it happen,” she said. “It is a good vehicle for older women. Quite frankly I can see a lot of actresses would bite your hand off to play these parts. It would also make a good amateur rights play as it’s very easy in that it’s not a big cast. We’ll have to see what happens.”

Christine wrote a short play Race For Life which was performed at Hope Mill earlier this year.

“I’ve had a lot of encouragement about that,” she said. “The plan is that when I recover from Kin, it would make a very lovely short film. I’ve also had some interest about other projects and I’ll definitely continue writing. I feel I’ve got things I want to explore for sure.

“And I’m still Gadass-ing - it’s my 10th year on Coronation Street which is immensely helpful. I’m hoping a lot of them will come and see Kin when it gets to Home.”

Kin is at the Duke’s, Lancaster tonight and tomorrow (www.dukeslancaster.org) and Home in Manchester from October 29 to November 2 (www.homemcr.org)