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Picture by Louise Buckby

IN THE world after James Bulger, it was inevitable that art would respond to the issues his murder threw into the faces of the horrified public.

Boy A, an excellent adaptation of Jonathan Trigell's book of the same name, was shown on Channel Four last November, and it was this that came most to my mind while watching Pilot Theatre's production of their artistic director Marcus Romer's adaptation of Anne Cassidy's Looking for JJ.

Cassidy's novel is published as one of Scholastic's Point titles, which include, among other things, a horror series available for younger readers. It was published in the same year - 2004 - as Boy A, and covers what is basically the same ground: the possible rehabilitation of a young person who committed a heinous crime as a child.

Former Hollyoaks star Christina Baily was first on to the relatively stark stage as Alice. By the simple but effective gesture of having her hair up or down, we switched between her present, living with a carer Rosie, and her past, when she was 10, coping with her mother's erratic behaviour and lifestyle.

Around this central, and very impressive, performance, five other actors played the rest of the characters who were significant in Alice's story.

As things began to build towards the defining event, Baily did her best to express the vulnerability of this young person, touching on the core issues of identity, exploitation and neglect.

This was brilliantly designed work from Pilot Theatre, combining a multi-purpose screen onto which various images could be displayed, with ambient sounds, such as phones ringing in the background when the case officer called. At one point, suitably Shakespearean bloody hands even appeared.

Every actor impressed, particularly a versatile Melanie Ash as Alice's mother, her case officer and a duplicitous reporter.

What was great to see - and highly unusual - was The Haymarket absolutely packed to the gills with young theatregoers, which I understand was the case for most of Looking for JJ's run. Let's hope that their enjoyment of this piece leads them back to the venue, especially now that student tickets for most shows are under £10.

I'm not that long out of school myself that I've forgotten the frisson of a trip out to anywhere, let alone the theatre, but when I attended, a very small portion of the audience's reaction was disappointingly immature - talking, making inane noises and sniggering at sex references in the play's text.

If our theatres are to work to include young people, the latter must live up to their part of the bargain, respecting the performers on stage by remaining silent.

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