Work in Progress members Hayley Thomas and Daniel O'Keefe made their fringe theatre debuts on Monday night, performing Adam Barnard's Sixteen at the Old Red Lion as part of the first ever Bare Bones Night.

Their performances - each with a monologue depicting a sixteen year old going through turbulent changes in their lives - won over a large audience, with many of the professional actors and theatre makers involved in the night fulsome in their praise for two of our boldest performers.

The review website remotegoat.co.uk, seem to have enjoyed it too:

Top mention has to go to 'Sixteen', written by Adam Barnard and directed by Ned Glasier. I've seen a number of plays that address the 'youth of today' - their anger and malaise, their relationship with technology, adults and drugs - but none which packs a punch like 'Sixteen'. Jodie and Joe, both 16, take turns on stage; she is preparing for an internet blind date with 'a real man' - compulsively processing all her thoughts and fears through Facebook. That moment of sexual awakening, looming adulthood - and painful naïvete - are captured perfectly by (18 year-old) Hayley Thomas. Daniel O'Keefe (also 18) as a white boy from a screwed-up home trying to make good in a last chance special school for disruptive pupils is, if possible, even more compelling. In one long monologue that never loses pace he moves through all the moods of a life on the brink as his sixteenth birthday plays out; O'Keefe's delivery, emotion and physical presence combined to produce something very special. Both actors and director Ned Glasier, of Islington Community Theatre, got the best out of some very astute writing from Barnard. Exciting stuff indeed.

(read the full review)

The writer, Adam Barnard, was delighted with the performances.  "I loved the production of Sixteen. To say that Dan and Hayley "got it" would be an understatement: they took my script, invested themselves in it, and came back with so much more. Their performances were alive, intelligent, honest, real. They worked with true integrity, and paid close attention to both the rhythm of the language and the feelings of the characters. They were just great. I sat in the audience grinning from ear to ear."

There will be a video of the play online soon.  In the meantime, do check out photos of the show in the production gallery.