The play, which premiered in London in 2017, was given its first Australian staging by Sydney Theatre Company in April this year. Newcastle's Theatre on Brunker will present its second Aussie production in November.

Theatre on Brunker's production manager, Meri Bird, read the play last year and tried to get the rights for staging it this year. Initially, the planned STC production prevented that from happening. But the company that holds the rights subsequently offered them to her.

And when she went to see the STC production she was pleased that the Theatre on Brunker committee had taken up that offer.

The play revolves around the difficult relationship between two sisters, Alice (played by Rosemary Dartnell) and Jenny (Jan Hunt), who are aged 41 and 39 respectively at its start. Alice is a scientist based in Switzerland's Geneva, working at CERN (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research) on the Large Hadron Collider as it starts up in 2008, with the aim of investigating the particles that make up our universe, and is embarking on the most exciting work of her life, searching for the Higgs Boson particle that has helped to shape people's lives.

Alice's clever, if disturbed, son Luke (Liam Bird) is fiercely critical of the environmental consequences of his mother's work. Jenny, meanwhile, lives in the English town Luton, sells medical insurance, looks after their aged mum, Karen (Lynda Rennie), and loses a baby daughter after scare stories about the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine lead her not to get it for the baby. When a tragedy throws them together, the collision threatens them all with chaos.

The comedy's other characters include: The Boson (Patrick Campbell), a physicist who talks about the threats the world faces if it can't resolve the likely impacts of the particles; Natalie (Jade Dray), a school chum who has become Luke's love interest; Alice's Swiss boyfriend, Henri (Dudley Horque), who has to repeatedly tell people that though he speaks French he's not from France; and Monica Howlett, Megan Williams, Colin Campbell and Sue Shaw in various roles, including police, a scientist, a cameraman, a journalist and a guard. Meri Bird is directing the production.

Interestingly, the play's Swiss research settings are real places, where particle studies are being done.

Another notable aspect of the story is that it doesn't avoid looking at the impacts people's words and behaviour have on others. Karen, for example, was a gifted physicist whose husband took credit for her breakthroughs and waltzed off with a Nobel Prize.

Jan Hunt notes that the play contains moments of relief after intense scenes, giving audiences the chance to recover. "And the links between people are well and truly put together," she said.

Patrick Campbell points out that while the story's scientists are very sure of their capabilities, their domestic lives don't reflect their professional abilities.

Mosquitoes will be presented at St Stephen's Anglican Church Hall, in Brunker Road, Adamstown, with Friday and Saturday evening performances on November 1 and 2, 8 and 9, and 22 and 23. There will be a Friday evening show on November 29, but, as the CONDA Awards for Newcastle theatre are in Saturday, November 30, there will be a 2pm show only matinee, but no night show, that day.

Audience members have a choice of dinner and show at 7pm ($50) or show only at 8pm ($25, pension and student card holders $20). Bookings: 4957 1895.

THE grand dame of world theatre, Dame Edna Everage, has been forced out of retirement by the demands of her adoring "Precious Possums", and is touring Australia, with three performances of a brand new show, Dame Edna: My Gorgeous Life, at Newcastle's Civic Theatre today, tomorrow and Saturday, at 7.30pm. All tickets for the remaining seats are $69 and can be booked by ringing 4929 1977.

In a letter to her fans, Dame Edna apologised for upsetting them when she announced her retirement from public life in 2013, blaming her manager, "failed actor and attention seeker" Barry Humphries.

"One of the reasons I am adored pretty much worldwide is that I've always told you the truth; mostly the truth about yourselves, and even sometimes about me," Dame Edna has declared.

Dame Edna, who, like Barry Humphries, is now 85, began her life in theatre in the 1960s, appearing on stage as purple-rinsed Melbourne housewife Mrs Edna Everage. Dame Edna has toured Europe, the US and the Middle East, picking up a Tony Award for the 2000 Broadway production Dame Edna, The Royal Tour and a Tony nomination in 2004 for Back with a Vengeance.

This is actually Dame Edna's third final tour. "This is an apology," she said. "It's an apology for once telling you a wicked fib: a porkie, a cruel deceitful lie. I told you I had retired. That was a few years ago and when my announcement got around the globe a lot of people 'freaked out', to employ a phrase I never use. Now I'm reborn, fit as a fiddle, and rid of the leech who tormented me for so long. So, Possums, please do come and say hello to me. It would be lovely to see your faces again."