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'

'Sensitively scripted and stunningly staged, Kes is essentially about a community which fails its young'

Barry Hines (1939–2016) was an English author who wrote several popular novels and television scripts. He is best known for the novel A Kestrel for a Knave (1968), which he helped adapt for Ken Loach's film Kes (1969).

Lawrence Till is a BAFTA and RTS nominated Producer & Director with a background in award winning theatre, with over fifteen years’ experience as an Artistic Director directing plays by new and established writers. He won a Writers' Guild Award for his encouragement of writers and has commissioned over forty new plays. He was Artistic Director of the Octagon Theatre, Bolton, from 1991 to 1999, and Watford Palace Theatre from 1999 to 2006.