A return to the dark side for Lord of the Flies actor Harry

What: Lord of the Flies

When: Friday, March 1, Saturday, 7pm; Sunday, 2pm

Where: Northern Academy of Performing Arts, Anlaby Road, Hull.

Tickets: £5-£7

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It was the play that kick-started his love of theatre. Now, almost a decade after he first appeared in Lord Of The Flies, Harry Owen is back on stage in the disturbing drama.

“It is a bit surreal,” said the 17-year-old from Hessle. “I don’t remember that much about that first performance but I do remember being swept along by the crowd.

“This was the play kicked everything off – it was when I realised acting was the thing for me.”

Harry was nine when he appeared in a Hull production of the play.

He starred as one of the twins in the drama, which, based on William Golding’s novel, follows a group of boys who turn feral after becoming stranded on a remote island.

The Northern Academy of Performing Arts’ new production, which opens on Friday, sees the Wyke College student taking the role of Roger.

This bullying character becomes the right-hand man for Jack – the leader of one of the two rival groups formed after a plane ferrying a group of evacuees crash lands.

“It is about the downfall of society,” said Harry.

“They start out as this really nice, functioning group but when one person has an idea to break out of their routine, everything goes pear-shaped from there.”

Author William Golding was a teacher when he decided to write the Lord Of The Flies.

First published in 1954, the novel was intended as a realistic response to The Coral Island – a novel that explored a group of shipwrecked boys living in harmony on a tropical island.

The play’s director, Katie Wright, said: “The group of schoolboys try to recreate society as they know it with rules and regulations – only to have it break down when the darker side of human nature defies attempts to establish order.”

Harry joined rehearsals last October and has enjoyed shaping the character.

“In the book, Roger is a small, weedy person,” he said. “We’ve portrayed him as a strong person – this meathead who does Jack’s bidding.”

To prepare for the production, the cast spent a day in Bail Wood, near Aldbrough. A location regularly used for Scout camps, it saw the cast building shelters and cooking food over an open fire, to try to place themselves in the position of their characters.

“We decided to act out some of the scenes – to see what it would feel like to be in the roles in an outdoor space,” said Harry.

“Up to then we’d been rehearsing indoors. Taking it out into that sort of wilderness allowed the characters to come out a bit more.

“It made it feel real.”

For Harry, who is currently in the second year of his A-levels, the production marks the next step towards his aim of studying at drama school.

“I always hoped I would appear in the play again, to see how far I had come along,” he said. “There must have been something about it which sparked something off in me – I have been involved in acting ever since.”