There are none of the normal stage directions or character notes you would expect in the production that has taken over the stage of the Old Fire Station this week, and the script is not carved up into acts, writes Helen Peacocke.

There aren't even any scenes or pointers as to the setting or staging.

Consequently Wreck the Airline Barrier, by Adrian Shaplin, challenges both audience and Four Sponge Productions' actors.

It's a play that uses physical theatre and language to steadily break down the barriers of taboo that tangle up our society.

And it all happens as the plane in which the characters travel falters and plummets downward. Brutal honesty and a loss of inhibitions in the face of death make for ground-breaking theatre, for no area of life is left sacred as prejudice, unspoken racism and fear bubble up into the text.

The group of enthusiastic young students staging this work have attempted to use the actors' bodies to create a sense of space and to find a balance between comedy and horror which will both shock and amuse the audience.

Producer Coco Ferguson says that the strength of this play, which is directed by Simon Woods, Cuppers Best Director 1999, comes from its ability to shock.

Staging this dramatic work, which won a Fringe First in Edinburgh 1999, has been a learning experience for both actors and the directors. But now it is opening night, they are confident members of the audience will gain as much from it as they have.

Wreck the Airline Barrier, opens tonight at the Old Fire Station and runs until Saturday. Tickets are available at the box office, telephone 01865 794490.