A GRIM Yorkshire mining town in the sixties was the setting for the novel A Kestrel For a Knave by Barry Hines.

Ken Loach turned it into the memorable film, Kes, and the stage version of this film is the latest production from the Western College Players.

Schoolboy Billy Casper has a feckless mother, a thuggish brother and an absent father – classic ingredients for the gritty realism of Northern drama. Drifting in and out of petty crime Billy doesn't fit in, but he finds solace in the unlikely pursuit of falconry and his fascination with the growing strength, beauty and free spirit of the baby kestrel that he is training, imbues the play with lyricism.

The company are presenting this play in association with Lipson Community College and Director Steve Baker has drawn some thoughtful performances from his young cast, they are a very authentic class of teenagers. The deprived and bewildered Billy is played with sensitivity by Stephen Pealing and he manages to find the desolation in the final scene. His older brother, Judd, is also a victim but he deals with it by becoming violent. Strong, confident acting from Liam Salmon. Their mother doesn't understand her sons and is indifferent to their needs, a nicely judged performance from Sarah Jones.

One teacher, Mr Farthing, a sympathetic Tim Rowley, begins to understand Billy, but two other teachers (Linus McCloskey and Jamie Corson) demonstrate that educators do not always lift children out of intellectual poverty.

However the play is not unremittingly bleak. Comedy comes from the scenes of normal life – at the butchers, bookies and newsagents. The company make a credible attempt at the Yorkshire dialect although the rhythm of the dialogue is not always captured. Author Barry Hines shows very clearly that the sixties did not swing for everyone and social ills are not always eradicated.