For the second time a theatre director from Farnham is staging a production at the Farnham Maltings in honour of one of her theatrical parents.

Two years ago Sophie Key put on The Little Match Girl in memory of her father, television writer Jeremy Paul, who adapted the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale for television in the early 1970s.

Now she is mounting a traditional version of Peter Pan as a tribute to her mother, actress Patricia Garwood, who met Jeremy while playing Wendy in Peter Pan in the West End as an 18-year-old in 1959.

Sophie said: “Dad went to see the show, fell in love with her, made a beeline for her in the bar afterwards and it led to 50 years of marriage.”

The family’s links to those two shows now span a third generation thanks to Sophie’s daughter Abbie.

In 2009 Patricia and one of Sophie’s sisters put on The Little Match Girl in Poole, with another sister acting, and six-year-old Abbie loved it so much she spent the next decade asking her mother to stage it as well. Sophie was equally keen and they achieved their ambition in 2019, with Abbie playing the part of Liza.

And in a case of déjà vu spanning 62 years, Abbie – now 18, like her grandmother at the time – is playing Wendy.

It was written in the stars, because Abbie was given her middle name Wendy after the character.

Sophie said: “It’s history coming full circle. Abbie said she always wanted to play Wendy, so it seemed like a natural choice.”

While The Little Match Girl sold out the 106-seat Tindle Studio six times, Peter Pan is in the 410-capacity Great Hall.

The much larger audience, a directors’ mentorship scheme and four acting skills workshops run by professionals are all part of the “community remit” of Key Players.

Sophie said: “It’s my intention to give my company as professional an experience as possible so they can use the production as a possible stepping stone into a professional theatre career.”

Chloe Johnson-Jones of Haslemere Players is Captain Hook. Sophie said: “I wanted to cast Hook as a woman as it gives it an interesting twist.”

Describing it as “a magical show that makes you feel Christmassy”, she added: “My friends say it’s the first Christmas jumper outing of the season!”

Peter Pan runs from November 30 to December 3 at 7.30pm. Tickets priced £15 (£12 concessions) are available at farnhammaltings.com, with all profits being donated to Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice Care.