Getting new writing to see the light of day can be an uphill struggle. Charlotte Keatley’s 1987 production of My Mother Said I Never Should won both the Royal Court/George Devine Award and the Manchester Evening News Theatre Award for Best New Play, as well as a nomination for an Olivier Award – Most Promising Newcomer. Some 25 years on, she’s still knocking on doors to get her work on stage.

“I wrote a war play but both the National Theatre Studio and the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) have sat on it,“ says an understandably frustrated Charlotte. “A lot of theatres don’t seem to see or recognise plays made by women or understand the vision we have.“

Thankfully, the award-winning playwright has found a second home at Watford Palace Theatre. The Palace’s artistic director Brigid Larmour, who directed the original production of My Mother Said I Never Should at Manchester’s Contact Theatre and revised the play at the Palace in 2009, has now commissioned Charlotte to create a brand new work – Our Father, which opens next week.

“Watford Palace and I are going to make lots of dazzling new plays together,“ enthuses Charlotte. “Thankfully, Brigid supports me and wants to make really exciting theatre. When I told her about my idea for the play she said ‘write it for me, for this theatre’. Her faith in me is absolutely vital.“

Since its first draft in March 2010, Our Father has undergone many changes and rewrites have continued right up into rehearsals as Charlotte fine-tunes the narrative to make it sound more real. Early on in the process, the play also benefited from input by the local community and support from the creative team.

“All along the way Brigid and I would talk every few months. I like to try out themes aloud. We literally had a reading on stage with the script in hand,“ recalls Charlotte. “There was a small audience of around 25 people and many stayed for the Q&A and to talk about the play in the bar afterwards. They were from all walks of life and their comments were so helpful to me because they showed how much the play engaged with people. I’m hoping they’ll come back to see it now.“ Our Father opens with Anna, a young woman returning to her parental home on the eve of her 30th birthday. Set amid the sweeping hills of the Peak District beside a vast reservoir, the house is full of memories and old resentments.

“The mum and dad, Sheila and Bill, are arguing about who has put what in what box. It’s very funny and it also tells us a lot about their marriage; it’s a metaphor for bigger things,“ explains Charlotte.

“They’re just like a friends’ parents or my own, which was very important to me as I wanted people to feel close to them. Some playwrights want to put across intellectual and political ideas but for me it’s really the emotional moments in daily life that are important.“ Escaping the domestic scene, Anna encounters a voice that appears to be coming from the drowned village beneath the reservoir.

Charlotte tells me this section of the play came to her 18 years ago, when she heard the voice of a young woman.

“As a writer you’re like a radio tuning in to all sorts of voices and some can actually be from the past. I heard the voice of young woman who was telling me she’d lived in a cell as a hermit – an anchoress.

“I wrote down what she was telling me and went off to the library to research it and found that several hundred years ago in Britain, it was quite a common thing for a young woman to volunteer to stay in a cell with no door, in prayer, until she died.“

Anchoritism was a practice among medieval men and women who chose to remove themselves from secular society in order to pursue a spiritual existence. Walled up in a cell attached to a church they would receive communion, eat frugally, dispense wisdom and offer up prayers to anyone who asked for advice.

“What she was saying to me was urgent – she was facing her demons and it occurred to me that if she was going to do this extraordinary thing, there must be something big going on. She was such a strong, amazing character, very much of the land and a great spirit.“ Although in part based on this 800-year-old custom, Charlotte stresses the play also has a strong contemporary message. Like My Mother Said I Never Should, the play shifts back and forth in time.

“I’m constantly listening and watching to see what people are concerned about. That’s part of the job. No matter how different we are, a lot of us are dealing with the same things that are hard and I’m fascinated by how we all manage. I like to engage with a wide range of people and really hurl myself into life.“

Our Father is at Watford Palace Theatre from Friday, February 17 to Saturday, March 3 at 7.30pm (Feb 17 at 7.45pm and Feb 21 at 7pm, various matinees). Details: 01923 225671