Old buttons with a story to tell are needed for a special show looking back at the make do and mend culture of the second world war.

Ragroof Theatre is coming to the city as part of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival, and it is appealing for people to donate their old buttons to the theatre company's 'button museum' which currently has more than 200 buttons from all over the country.

With each button donated the company is asking people to attach a wartime memory, and some of these reminiscences will be incorporated into Ragroof Theatre's Make Do And Mend show which will be at Chapelfield Gardens on May 26.

Marion Duggan said: 'The museum has grown and grown over time and each button is displayed in a cabinet with a typed-up note of the story the button inspires.

'During our show we take a selection of the buttons and stories from the museum and then retell them as theatrical vignettes.

'We bring to life the stories, and hopefully when we come to Norfolk we will be able to incorporate people's stories of life in wartime Norfolk. What was beautiful about that time was the sense of community that encouraged people to really come together and work together, and this show celebrates that.

'There is a nice metaphor with the buttons, in a sense of the stories being sewn together.'

Ragroof Theatre will also be hosting tea dances in the Spiegeltent during the festival, and during the Make Do And Mend performances the wartime stories will be interspersed with dancing by local people recruited from the tea dances and also in collaboration with Norfolk Dance.

People should send their buttons and stories to Marion Duggan, Ragroof Theatre, c/o Brighton Youth Centre, 64 Edward Street, Brighton, BN2 0JR.

Alternatively they can email a picture of their button and their story to marion@ragrooftheatre.co.uk and then bring the actual button with them to the show.

Make Do And Mend will be performed in Chapelfield Gardens on Saturday, May 26 as part of the line-up for the NNF's Festival Feast which is a free event.

The tea dances in the festival's Spiegeltent are on Sunday, May 13 and Sunday, May 20. Tickets cost �5.