COLE Porter's high calibre entertainment based on the comical comings and goings on a cruise ship is the treat in store for followers of Flookburgh Amateur Operatic Society.

Featuring memorable musical characters such as nightclub singer Reno Sweeney and Moonface Martin, Anything Goes follows young Wall Street broker Billy Crocker as he stows away on an ocean liner, trying to win the heart of his beloved De-Lovely' Hope Harcourt.

Laced with top tunes and plenty of shenanigans below deck, the glittering all-singing, all-dancing, FAOS cast leave New York, bound for London, as Lower Holker Village Hall is transformed into the SS American, from next Tuesday (March 20) until Saturday, March 24, starting each night at 7.30pm.

Tickets are available by calling 015395-58204.

n CARTMEL Priory hosts a fund-raiser on Sunday, March 25 at 8pm, organised by Pam Self in memory of her close friend Helen Vaughan, who died in 2004.

"I had known Helen since our secondary school days at Cartmel," explains Pam.

"She died after a long fight against cancer and several years of dialysis.

"During a discussion about 50th birthdays she said to me when we're 50 we'll have to have a joint celebration!'. "Helen was 12 days older than me, and would have been 50 on March 12."

The concert is basically the joint celebration - of two births in 1957, and includes Stabat Mater by Pergolesi, one of Helen's favourite works, sung by Pam and Julie Leavett together and Pam alone, and several movements from Adiemus. Songs of Sanctuary by Karl Jenkins, is to be sung by women's a capella groups Nothing to Prove and Five in a Bar with Helen Martin on recorder; Melissa Gray, percussion and Adrian Self on piano.

Entry is free with a retiring collection for St Mary's Hospice, at Ulverston, the haemodialysis unit at Westmorland General Hospital and CancerCare.

n TRISH Gordon's talented Brewery Youth Theatre players are back on the Brewery Arts Centre stage with A Year and a Day on Friday and Saturday, March 23/24 (8pm).

Directed by Trish - the Kendal arts centre's drama development officer - and assisted by Davinia Turner, they perform TV, radio and theatre writer Christina Reid's new play about a travelling storyteller and a girl who meet in a land devastated by war and famine.

The storyteller conjures a long, long-ago garden inhabited by The Kritters of the land, the trees and the water - and two tribes of humans who worship different Gods. The tale of the corruption and loss of the ancient garden is a love story that becomes a never-ending story of old ghosts who still haunt the earth.

Box office 01539-725133.