THIS production of Dennis Potter’s short play begins with adult characters silently surveying their wartime childhood ‘playground’, the Forest of Dean and in this way director John O’Hanlon (his first production for TFT) hints at the way early childhood dramas overshadow later life.

The play’s impact derives from having adults acting as children, starting with the arrival on stage of Willy (Shaun Britton) noisily imitating a Spitfire and eating an apple until Peter (Jan Hylands) comes to demand a bite and boss him about, chucking sticks past the audience with skilfully reckless abandon.

These two make a fine team and keep the audience chuckling and, no doubt, recalling their own youthful follies, as do Raymond (Louise Mannell) with his stutter and gun, Angela (Cat Wolridge’s début) with her pram and doll, morbid Audrey (Clare Blackburn), fine minded John (Dan Finch) and, most hauntingly, the sensitive and victimised Donald (Peter Trott).

The barn that acts as Donald’s retreat and seals his fate succeeds through a combination of ingenious set design and lighting effects by first timer Arthur Mills.

Ham Quentin