The first piece of theatre playwright Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti ever saw was at Watford Palace Theatre.

“We came with school to see a panto, I can’t remember what it was now, but I do remember that it was this really extraordinary, exciting place,” she recalls. “The red seats, the curtain and the specialness of the place. It was really magical.”

When Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti returns to the Palace next week, some 30 years after that first experience, it will be for the opening night of Fourteen, her new play set in, and starring, Watford.

Returning to her home town for rehearsals for the play has been quite emotional.

“It’s really quite poignant for me,” says Gurpreet, who left Watford 25 years ago when she was 20. “It feels amazing to be from Watford and a playwright and having a play put on here at what was my local theatre, it’s fantastic.”

Gurpreet also used to be a member of Theatre Yard, the Palace’s former youth theatre group, when she was about nine, which brings extra resonance to her return.

“Watford is at the play’s heart, it’s about the town and the magical bits about that town, and the way it’s changed,” says Gurpreet, who grew up in West Watford.

Fourteen, directed by the Palace’s artistic director Brigid Larmour and starring Yasmin Wilde, is about 14-year-old Tina, growing up in Watford, and about how life doesn’t always turn out quite the way you think.

Audience members should listen out for references to Watford Grammar School for Girls (where Gurpreet herself was a pupil), Vicarage Road, Cassiobury Park, the Meriden Estate, Shrodells Hospital, and Watford Fields, among other places.

“When I was growing up here, there was quite a strong community and it felt quite integrated, I’ve come from quite a strong and hopeful community, and I think that has probably impacted on all of my writing,” continues Gurpreet, who is also a writer for The Archers. Her other plays include Behsharam (Shameless) and Behzti (Dishonour), which was sensationally closed after playing to packed houses at the Birmingham Rep in 2004 after Gurpreet received hate mail and death threats.

“I came back to Watford a few weeks ago and walked around some of the key places in the play. It was really interesting because I got flashes of myself and how I felt back then and what was going on in my life. Obviously I’ve changed and the place has changed, and there’s an element of that which is sad, but also quite exhilarating.”

  • Fourteen is at the Watford Palace Theatre, Clarendon Road, Watford, from Wednesday, May 21 to Saturday, May 24, at 7.45pm with a Saturday matinee at 2.30pm. Details: 01923 225671, watfordpalacetheatre.co.uk