Five Minutes Plays

In days of old a play from Keighley's youth theatre rivalled the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings movies for length.

But the latest production from HYT took its audience to the other side of the egg-timer.

Each play was so short that the youngsters managed to pack 12 of them into one evening.

Low quantity did not mean low quality for each of these plays, even though they were presented in the low-rent surroundings of the Keighley College basement.

The dozen short pieces showed a wide range of styles and an expansive imagination, but a consistency of acting and writing talent.

Some could barely be called plays, being little more than sketches with a set-up, a bit of dialogue and a pay-off.

But others aimed for the epic, compressing a pantomime into five minutes or recreating the musical Cats with rodents instead of felines.

The most ambitious piece of scenery was probably a bus stop -- used in at least three of the plays -- and the atmosphere was informal and jokey.

Most of the audience seemed to be HYT's family and immediate friends -- who better understood many of the in-jokes -- but this was an enjoyable experience for all.

It was admirable that many of the plays were written by present and past HYT members instead of just their leader Jonathan Crossley and other adults. Some of these younger efforts were very good, which bodes well for the future, in the same way Jonathan himself was groomed for leadership while a teenage actor in the group.