RESIDENTS of a former railway town are working on a play depicting life after the closure of their carriage works.

Shildon's community play, Safe As Houses, will form part of the town's reunion celebration, which is replacing the ill-fated Millennium Cavalcade of Steam.

Theatre professionals and writers were dispatched to the town in February, where they have been working with residents.

The cast of 30 adults and a youth choir have 20 days left until they take to the stage.

Performed by Shildon people, set in a Shildon shop and based on the experiences of a fictional Shildon family, the play should strike a cord with people in the community. Safe As Houses charts the lives of a family and friends as they deal with the closure of Shildon engineering works in 1984.

Paul Summers, a professional writer who co-wrote the play with Ian Dowson, said: "There are a few in the cast who've been involved in amateur dramatics, but there are lots of people who just fancied a try at acting and enjoyed it.

"The play's second act is predominately about now; what people got up to after the closure of the works in 1984 and how they've progressed."

Tickets for the play, which will be staged at Sunnydale Comprehensive School, go on sale next week. Performances run from August 22 to 25.