Arts and Culture Features

The youth theatre's latest musical, Missing Since Monday, tells the story of a 15-year-old girl, Laura Barton, who goes missing - and the impact that has on her friends and family.

The audience are taken on a journey which explores the possible reasons for her disappearance and explanations for what could have happened to her.

The story of Laura Barton

Since the project started earlier this year, the company of the youth theatre have been researching the stories behind real-life disappearances in order to create the musical from scratch.

They spent a term improvising and working on ideas to illustrate the subject of missing young people, and looked into some of the high profile local cases which many had seen in the media.

The individual cases included those of Dan Nolan who was the subject of a huge campaign when he disappeared without trace from Hamble on New Years Day 2002, as well as Millie Dowler, a Surrey teenager abducted and killed the same year and 15 year-old Rosemary Edwards who left home and took her own life in the New Forest in 2007.

Company Director Fran Morley admits she was surprised by how many of the young people in the cast were close to such traumatic and difficult events: "Disappearance is a very real issue for today's teenagers."

The 45-minute musical also examines the issues behind many disappearances - such as family break-ups and bullying, and includes a Q&A discussion involving the audience.

The 40 teenagers also helped create the music for the production with Southampton University music student Harriet Oughton writing the score.

Missing since Monday's 40-strong cast

For Harriet, writing a score for such a difficult subject was always going to be a challenge:

"I like the idea that musicals should be dark and gritty. The music supports the subject because you can really be emotional with it.

 "You can really get across the feelings, especially with such a serious subject."

The Nuffield Theatre gives young people aged between 13 and 25 from around the Solent region the chance to experience working in a theatre both on stage and behind the scenes. 

As well as helping develop the storyline and music for Missing Since Monday, the cast also helped paint the set and produce the film inserts used during the musical.

Missing since Monday - The Nuffield Theatre - 11-13 June 2009 - Box Office 023 8067 1771