LAWRENCE TILL has the difficult task of adapting Kes for the stage,and the result is worthy of its predecessors.

It’s been 40 years since Ken Loach’s award-winning film of Barry Hines’ novel introduced us to Billy Casper, 14-year-old no-hoper from a Northern working-class family.

Billy’s bleak home life and struggles with school fade into insignificance when he adopts a young kestrel and trains it to come to his call. The bird becomes his entire focus and, for a few brief minutes, the inarticulate boy is transformed as he’s encouraged by his teacher to share his feelings for Kes.

Sadly, though, his joy is short-lived and we share his desolation when Kes is brutally killed.

Stefan Butler gives an astonishing performance as Billy, capturing the boy’s vulnerability and impotent rage against his bullying older brother, powerfully played by Oliver Farnworth. Picked on by the police, teachers and classmates, Billy retreats into a world where only Kes matters.

Although the book was written in the Sixties, there are still many thousands of youngsters like Billy, living a life of poverty and hopelessness, ill-educated and under equipped to make a decent living.

Teachers still struggle to strike a spark of interest in classrooms full of bored youngsters who can’t see the point of education and can’t wait to leave.

It’s a depressing scenario and this play is no picnic. If you like happy endings, perhaps this production isn’t for you.

It’s an absorbing, powerful dramatic experience, the best I’ve seen for a long time.

Until Saturday. Box Office: 01325-486555

Sue Heath