SOME of the most promising young actors, designers and theatre technicians in the country are taking part in an ambitious project to stage a play in just three weeks.

More than 200 people aged 16 to 25 applied to take part in the Peer Gynt Project at the North Wall Arts Centre in Summertown, Oxford.

Just 26 were chosen to work on the adaptation of the Ibsen play being run by tutors from the Awake Project, a European ensemble combining physical theatre, acrobatics, song and dance.

They are now in the final stages of the scheme and making last minute touches, rehearsals and run-throughs before the performances on Friday and Saturday.

Producer Paula Clark said: “It’s been going really well and they have been working extremely hard.

“It’s the last week where the pace really picks up and everything comes together.

“The apprentice technicians are working on costume and set design and it’s starting to look really brilliant.”

The project started on August 1 and will culminate in two performances on Friday and Saturday at the North Wall.

Ms Clark said: “By working together to create a new piece of work, they are not being taught in a series of classes but instead learning by doing, taking something on and devising something new.”

Ailsa Joy, a 21-year-old drama student at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (Rada) from Old Marston, was among those selected.

She said: “I think it will really help with my discipline when I go back to drama school.

“We have all the scenes but one and have done a run-through so I think if every day we run it once, it’s going to be phenomenal by the time it gets to Friday.”