A THEATRE company is using drama to tackle under-age drinking and help the unemployed get back into work.

Issues such as asylum seekers and juvenile nuisance are also used by members of Talia Theatre at Darwen Library Theatre, with the aim to educating its audience.

Chle Whitehead and James Beale met at Middlesex University in 1992 where they studied English literature and drama. Eleven years later the pair set up the theatre company and the directors are the first in the country to develop a system based around movement as a form of dramatic expression. Their mentor, Russian director, Gennadi Bogdanov, provided the inspiration and gave them the idea to form the Darwen-based company. The critically acclaimed director has worked in America and Europe and has directed performances in Moscow Theatre.

Chle said: "I had always wanted to be in a company but never thought I'd actually be running one. James was a really good swimmer but, when he was 17, he went to see a production of Hamlet with Daniel Day Lewis and it encouraged him to make the switch from swimming to theatre.

"We tried to form a company when we finished university but it didn't happen so we did street theatre for a year. We had always been told that if you make it on the street, you'll make it anywhere. So we got a camper van and toured around Europe for a year in 1996 and that was possibly the best year of my life.

"We went to Belgium, Germany, Denmark, France, Poland, all over the place."

On their return, Chle returned home to Knutsford and the Talia Theatre company was born when Blackburn with Darwen Council realised the educational potential of the team.

Chle, 28, said: "We do a lot of work now that involves emotional intelligence and educational events." The Lab Project works with unemployed people or workers looking for a career change. The two-week training programme aims to build self-confidence and motivate participants through drama.

Neil Proctor, of Bootstrap Enterprises in Darwen, attended the Lab Project and now helps to run the community programmes. He said: "It's a programme that really motivates you to get on your feet and it's great. I've never known anything like it and to use drama in this way is very effective." Another programme, In Focus, works with pupils aged 13 to 16 who are on the verge of expulsion from school. Chle said: "The scheme is very successful. We have worked with 15 children through the 12-week programme and all of them are still in school. A lot of them are now doing really well. It's all about using drama as a tool for education and learning. We also have one-off events such as discouraging teenagers from drinking and preventing teenage pregnancies."

Low audience figures prevent the company from making more than one theatrical performance a year at the library theatre.

Talia Theatre's 2003 production, 7 Assilion Place, focuses on the issues surrounding asylum seekers. The play will be performed at the Library Theatre on March 28 at 7.30pm. For tickets, call the box office on 01254 706006.