LUDLOW-based Pentabus theatre company presents a concise and pertinent telling of the mass strawberry production debate in its new production, Strawberry Fields.

As ripe and juicy as the very fruit whose future it dissects, the piece uses the dialogue of interviewees as its text.

Shoppers, pickers, sellers, farmers, planners, councillors, farming union representatives and pressmen all have a view, and most seem to wish it wasn't filled with plastic.

It's far more complicated an issue than the cry of nimbyism, which the issue of polytunnels blighting our countryside often incurs, and the whys and wherefores fly thick and fast.

The actors wear earpieces through which they initially echo and, once the point has got across that the words are those of the interviewees, later perform.

The characterisation alone makes this production as good as anything you'll see - notably Morgan George's metamorphosis from coy granddaughter to spokesman for S&A Davies, Graham Neal.

But all five of the cast are masters of their game and the laughs come through the humanisation of the issues, with which most of the audience are probably pretty familiar.

Director Alecky Blythe maintains a firm grip on the balance of the piece and the arguments are given equal measure.

Yet somehow it's the words of the Polish workers, the old ladies who've seen the changing face of our countryside and the nave shopkeeper (who always prefers to buy British) that linger.

Catch this production at Putley village hall tonight (Thursday) - 01531 670943 - and Stoke Prior village hall on May 3 - 01568 760380.

Full tour details are available at www.pentabus.co.uk Julie Harries