Kes

The name Kes alone is sure to evoke a misty-eyed fondness in folk of a certain age. Based on Barry Hines' novel A Kestral for a Knave and slotting itself neatly into the British film canon with Ken Loach's masterful adaptation, this new stage revival is a fearless venture. With trailblazing director Nikolai Foster at the helm, whose most recent production is the national revival of The Witches of Eastwick, this is a show in very capable hands.

Billy Casper (Stefan Butler) is trapped in a joyless working-class routine; caned by strict teachers, he makes mischief from boredom, and though he resists, his future is destined to involve an inevitable slave-wage from the local pit. At home, he is bullied by his drunken brother, shunned by his partying mother, and the majority of his problems stem from being abandoned by his father. Despite this apparent kitchen-sink bleakness, Kes is never a dispiriting affair. When Billy reveals that his secret pastime is falconry, the play becomes no longer about a lost boy, but about a young man who knows his own mind but whose society is determined to destroy him.

The conflict of passionate imagination and turgid reality is played out in illuminating detail, particularly during scene-breaks when a balletic representation of Billy flits around stage, escaping through the medium of dance to heavy percussive music. Although it is over forty years since the original novel's publication, the source still clearly resonates today. Watching the play, a modern audience inflated by school parties ensures that the prominence of youth in the play is unforgotten: it is heartening to see that rambling moral tirades, such as those given by austere school-master Mister Gryce, remain wasted on the young.

Although his pre-pubescent Yorkshire accent is startling at first, Butler portrays Billy with enormous empathy. It is the connection with his character that makes Billy a personable role model. His final monologue, relating hawk-like cravings for flight and freedom, is a daring piece of theatre: up high, arms outstretched, like a symbolic figure of Christ.

A stringent adaptation of neither book nor film, this vision of Kes will divide audiences who seek an exact replication of what has gone before. As an introduction to the material's importance, however, its quality is unsurpassed; an affecting adaptation, showing hope and soaring high.