The Courtyard Senior Youth Theatre has done it again.

With a stack of first rate productions to its name it seems unfeasible that it can maintain standards but this week's opening night of Kes was as quick, clever and powerful as any of its predecessors.

Joe Corrigan is quite brilliant as the gawky, unloved, tortured lead, Billy Casper.

Bullied at school, and at home by his elder brother Jud, Billy exists in no-man's-land. Yearning to be alone and pilloried for it.

His spirit is encouraged by the discovery of a young kestrel hawk, which he trains.

He spends the winter nights ploughing his way through a stolen library book to teach himself falconry. The bird, Kes, becomes his focus.

Director Estelle van Warmelo has tapped into the energy of her young cast who parody the awfulness of schoolroom antics one minute, and personify the fledgling birds the next.

Billy moves between the birds, leaping from desk to desk (rock to rock) in a beautiful piece of direction.

The cast performs well as a pack in the school scenes but there is room also for several great character parts.

Ellen Boyd received a round of applause for her cameo as a youth employment officer, while Greg Tannahill softly treads the character of Billy's teacher Mr Farthing, Alex Evans is suitably unpleasant as the ranting head teacher Mr Gryce and Laurence Fox is believably cruel as Billy's sibling.

But aside from being a thoroughly well executed piece of dynamic theatre, this production is part of a journey.

The distance from a to b in growing up, both on stage and off.

Kes plays 'til Saturday, July 30, at Hereford Courtyard.

JULIE HARRIES