THE world premiere of a set of commissioned short plays has been held at Witham Hall, in Barnard Castle.

The Turrets, which is the youth section of the town's amateur dramatics group the Castle Players, have been working with three other youth theatres from County Durham to produce a four-part play.

Funding totalling more than £10,000 enabled the groups to work with professional playwright David Napthine, to create mini plays based around one simple set, and produce them as a single show.

The four plays have titles taken from the works of T S Eliot and are called The Door We Never Opened, Now the Light Falls, Seasons and Rages, and The Pattern of Timeless Moments.

Jill Cole, director of the Castle Players, said: "This is an extremely exciting development for youth theatre in the region.

"Some 40 of the cast got together last year when we went on a joint residential over a weekend in Crawleyside. We are also planning a repeat in May. It has been a great opportunity to work with a professional writer."

Elements, a three-year initiative for the development of drama in County Durham, provided £5,000 funding for the project. The County Durham Foundation Investing in Children and Durham County Council youth development project each provided £2,000. Other funding came from Wear Valley District Council, Teesdale District Council, Parkside Community Association and GlaxoSmithKline.