THE CHANGELING / BEAUTIFUL THING

Salisbury Playhouse

"Repertory theatre is the traditional training ground for the future stars of tomorrow", proclaims the programme for this double bill. With its short rehearsal periods and enforced need to shoehorn the available company into every play on the programme, rep offers an excellent schooling for actors seeking to develop a breadth of character and a firm grasp of technique. Unfortunately, a young actor today is more likely to boast a fistful of fleeting appearances in Casualty and The Bill than a solid season in rep. To counter this decline in traditional repertory theatre, Salisbury Playhouse has launched the Springboard Project, which selects the cream of drama school graduates to work on two plays in a 'mini-rep' environment.

And so one has the juxtaposition of two very unlikely bedfellows: Middleton and Rowley's The Changeling and Jonathan Harvey's Beautiful Thing - a tense Jacobean psycho-thriller and a 1990s comedy of blossoming gay love. The mismatched number of characters mean that the rep effect is somewhat lost in the fact that three of the main actors from The Changeling - Irene Rambota (Beatrice-Joanna), Stephen Campbell Moore (Deflores) and Asa Cannell (Vermandero/Lollio) - do not appear in Beautiful Thing. Yet this does leave Rambota and Campbell Moore free to devote their full energies to a searing portrayal of the blend of lust, devotion, loathing and violence which characterises The Changeling's central relationship. The air crackles when Beatrice and Deflores come together. Alongside this, the subplot offers a rich comic counterpoint from Cannell in partnership with Rachel Ferjani (Isabella) and Ferdy Roberts - a remarkably versatile actor who manages to combine three roles in The Changeling with a part in Beautiful Thing. It is the latter play in which he flowers fully, possibly aided by the fact that Tony is the only funny character in a play which seems to pose far greater difficulties for this company.

Beautiful Thing is Wedekind's Spring Awakening remoulded as a cross between an episode of EastEnders and a Harry Enfield obnoxious teenagers sketch. Unfortunately the script lacks the verisimilitude of the former or the witty perspicacity of the latter. Its main appeal appears to lie in the fact that this is a gay coming-of-age story with a happy ending. The actors seem more relaxed in the grown-up world of The Changeling than the pubescent passions of Beautiful Thing, with a tendency to over-juvenilise the main teenage characters. Whilst Ben Casey (Jamie) and Oliver Dimsdale (Ste) manage to inject a certain degree of gawky broken-voiced tenderness into the central relationship, one still feels they would be as happy playing Cowboys and Indians together. The adult characters come off rather better, although Joanna Thaw is somewhat handicapped by the fact that Harvey's script for Sandra owes far too much to Angie of the Queen Vic.

Yet overall the Playhouse's project is both laudable and successful. Springboard not only offers training for some fine young actors, but also provides Salisbury's theatregoers with a rather more diverse programme than that offered by most provincial theatres. And, of course, there is the fun of trying to spot the stars of the future. Or at least put names to the faces you see in The Bill.

Toby O'Connor Morse

Run in rep. until Saturday 27 November. Box office (01722) 320333