YOUNGSTERS from a Hampshire youth theatre have stepped back in time to get into character for their latest production - Oliver!

Stage One Youth Theatre are staging Oliver! during October half-term at Fareham’s Ferneham Hall and the cast made the most of the opportunity to hold their costume fittings at the Victorian Fort Widley. The fort was built in the mid-19th Century on Portsdown Hill as part of a network of fortifications to protect the South Coast from French invasion and is now home to an equestrian centre. The Youth Theatre’s costumes are stored at the fort and its tunnels and dark passages proved to be the perfect setting for the young cast to get into character.

Jacqui Ivemy who is directing the production of Oliver! and has worked with Stage One for over 20 years, said: “It was marvellous to be able to have our costume fitting in a setting that is so redolent of the era of Charles Dickens, it really helped the cast to imagine themselves in the sinister backstreets of Fagin’s London.”

Stage One Youth Theatre are no strangers to Daily Echo readers as the company have regularly been nominated for Curtain Call awards.

Stage One will be performing Oliver! 26-28 October. Tickets from Ferneham Hall (box office: 01329 231942 or online at www.fernehamhall.co.uk).