HOLYBOURNE Youth Theatre, a talented group of children aged six to 18, is always up for a challenge – and so the decision has been taken to tackle one of Roald Dahl’s lesser-known stories, The Twits.

The Twits are a hideous, vindictive, spiteful couple who live together in a brick house without windows. Mr Twit is a foul and smelly man with bits of cornflake and sardine in his beard. Mrs Twit is a horrible old hag with a glass eye. Together they make the nastiest couple you could ever meet. They continuously play practical jokes on each other out of hatred and also keep a family of pet monkeys, the Muggle-Wumps.

Roald Dahl was inspired to write The Twits by a desire to “do something against beards”, because he had an acute hatred of them. The first sentence of the story is: “What a lot of hairy-faced men there are around nowadays!”

The play follows six episodes in the disgusting life of Mr and Mrs Twit, with each episode being performed by a different cast and interspersed with songs. More than 30 children are taking part and the show is performed ‘in the round’ ensuring the audience feel part of the action.

The show started last weekend and will continue on Saturday and Sunday at the London Road theatre in the village, with matinee performances at 2pm. Tickets, priced £7.50, are available online at holybournetheatre.co.uk.

Holybourne Youth theatre was established in 1976 and runs workshops every weekend during the school term for up to 80 children. Places are sometimes available in the four classes split by age.