The Stage

Kes

Published Monday 6 September 2010 at 13:12 by Andrew Liddle

The Coliseum’s new season kicks off with Lawrence Till’s touching adaptation of Barry Hines’s modern classic. It seems as fresh today as when it was first launched at the Sheffield Crucible in 1999, hailed as a worthy addition to the cult of Kes, the prize exhibit of which, of course, was Ken Loach’s much-lauded film version of 30 years earlier.

Adam Barlow (Billy) in Kes at Oldham Coliseum Photo: Ian Tilton

Bolton-born Adam Barlow, who gave a towering performance as Billy Woodruff in last season’s production of The Road To Nab End, wraps his tonsils round the Barnsley accent with ease. He is no less assured and original in the even more challenging role, the benchmark of which must ever be David Bradley’s on-screen portrayal of the strangely likeable tragic lone-wolf, whose only consolation for life’s depredations is his attachment to the hawk.

Here is a play teeming with incident and character, humour and pathos, brought vividly to life by a formidable ensemble of actors and a 24-strong troupe of genuine school pupils. It is quite a tour de force for director Kevin Shaw to get them all on the crowded set - beautifully crafted by Foxton - let alone to choreograph so many gritty performances.

Meriel Scholfield as Billy’s slatternly mother and Jake Norton as the bullying elder brother, Jud, complete the depressing domestic scene. Paul Barnhill is the caring teacher, Mr Farthing, clearly grasping what escapes the attention of Ged McKenna’s cane-swinging headmaster, Mr Gryce: that Billy needs hope, not humiliation.