A tried-and-tested stage adaptation of Barry Hines’ novel A Kestrel for a Knave, about a troubled young boy who finds and trains a kestrel.
Billy, a disaffected young boy, has problems at school and at home: he’s neglected by his mother, beaten by his brother and bullied on all sides. He adopts a fledgling kestrel and treats it with all the tenderness he has never known. Slowly, he begins to see for the first time what he could achieve – if only he tried.
Lawrence Till’s adaptation of Barry Hines’ 1968 novel retains its gritty charm and popular staying power. Kes was first performed at West Yorkshire Playhouse in 1999.
‘Laurence Till’s skilful adaptation… offers a series of sure-fire scenes… Hines’ story retains an undeniable emotional pull’
— Independent
‘Sensitively scripted and stunningly staged, Kes is essentially about a community which fails its young’
— The Times
