Saturday, January 18 is the 130th birthday of Arthur Ransome - it is also the date of Theatre by the Lake’s last performance of his much-loved Lake District story Swallows & Amazons.

To celebrate the anniversary, audience members at the 7pm performance on Saturday are being invited to don their pirate garb in the spirit of the swashbuckling tale. Dust off your tricorn hat and brandish your cutlass – there will be prizes for the best homemade costumes.

On Wednesday, January 15, the theatre is hosting another companion piece to Swallows & Amazons for grown-up fans of Ransome’s work – Death or Glory, a new play by Rick Thomas.

His play about Shakespeare, For All Time, was performed at the theatre in 2009 and received a four star review from The Guardian. This new work explores the exciting years that Ransome spent in Russia.

Ransome originally went to Russia in 1913 to write a guidebook about St Petersburg, but he got much more involved in the country than he bargained for.

Evidence has since emerged that he was a spy during the Russian revolution. He married Trotsky's private secretary, Evgenia.

A rehearsed reading of Death or Glory will be held in the theatre’s Main House on Wednesday, January 15 at 7pm. The performance will be followed by a question and answer session with Thomas and the cast. Tickets cost just £2.50 each.

Swallows & Amazons, adapted by Helen Edmundson and with songs by Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy, has been playing at the theatre since the beginning of December.