A YOUNG theatre director is appealing for local businesses to donate items to help bring the New Forest to the heart of Southampton.

Hester Chillingworth, 19, of Bassett Avenue, Southampton, will be directing Paul Godfrey's A Bucket of Eels and needs bizarre items to create a 'real' forest in the Gantry Theatre, Southampton.

Plants, green plastic and turf are some of the items on the list to make this year's production a huge success. The play is set on the millennium and follows one man on the eve of his wedding witnessing a sequence of bizarre events which perhaps uncover the emotional key to our survival over the next thousand years.

Hester formed her company Off the Cuff at Taunton's College, where she directed and produced Alan Ayckbourne's Absurd Person Singular.

After gaining four A-levels she produced another sell-out play called Lunch Girls by Ron Hart at the Gantry Theatre and is currently seeking funding to train with Patrick Sandford at the Nuffield Theatre in Southampton.

Emily Bridges, of Hollydene Villas, Hythe, said: "We do need generous donations from the public to help build our forestry backdrop and any sponsorship would be gratefully accepted - we hope the public enjoy the play."

A Bucket of Eels runs from September 9 to 11 at 7.30pm and tickets are £4.75 for adults and £3.75 for concessions. Contact Emily Bridges on 01703 840193 or Hester Chillingworth on 01703 769027.

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