LOCAL theatre company In Yer Face Productions have impressed audiences once again with their latest production.

Director Matt Driscoll cannily selected Enda Walsh’s Chatroom as their material, and the power of this play, which was first written in 2005, remains generally undiminished.

It’s a fantastic piece, and it offered plum roles to six of the theatre group’s students, all of whom were well cast and who brilliantly captured the black comedy of the piece in addition to its dramatic tension.

On this evidence, their future is certainly bright.

Chatroom was equally well staged, with effective lighting by Alex Jones, sound by Faye Cottrell and a clever filmed segment by Jamie Riley.

The play concerns six Chiswick teens who meet in online chatrooms. Nathan Butler’s troubled Jim, who was abandoned by his father as a younger child, first encounters the passively supportive Laura (Tilly Shearing) before connecting, unfortunately, with William (Jerome Courtois) and Eva (Thea Shearing).

The pair, smelling blood, bait him relentlessly, actively encouraging him to kill himself and turning on other chatroom users Jack (Tom Lewis) and Emily (Ruth Owen) in the process.

Staging was perfect; the performers moved chairs around a floor which had been designed to look like a computer keyboard as their interactions progressed, all against a backdrop of running Matrix code.

Each one of the actors delivered an impressive performance, wholly convincing as their characters throughout.

Nathan was perfectly tortured opposite Jerome and Eva’s frighteningly confident fiends. It was a great moment when the decent souls portrayed by Tom, Ruth and Tilly finally got together to confront the menaces.

The next performance by In Yer Face Productions in Central Studio will be Willy Russell’s Our Day Out on Sunday, July 26 at 7.30pm.

Find out more online at inyerfaceproductions.co.uk.