MOULTON Drama Group fused the increasingly blurred lines between fiction and reality with their latest offering, The Underwich Project.

Written by Robert Meadows, the play tells the story of the residents of a village called Underwich who are battling to stop plans for a waste dump in a nearby disused mineshaft.

In a so-called respectable community, all is not what it seems - corruption is rife and no-one is above bribery.

Except the newspaper reporter! A fictional hack portrayed in a positive light? Well, there's a first time for everything. Thank you Mr Meadows.

As expected there were plenty of in-jokes and recognisable characters which, for the most part, were well handled.

Peter Burkey, as company frontman Richard Bullman, and Chris Wright, as his faithful PA, did particularly well in getting under the skin of their characters and offering duplicitous natures, while Lynn Slinger stole the show as the manipulative Christina Diagera.

Sadly other characters were not allowed to develop and descended into stereotype, though all the comic lines were timed well.

A potentially powerful tool was employed by dragging the audience into the play.

On entering the theatre they became a part of the story as an assembled crowd at an environmental meeting.

Even leaflets describing Underwich UK Plc's plans were distributed as the on-stage action took place.

And this impression was exacerbated as the group embraced technology with a multitude of lighting, sound effects, a permanent computer presence and an overhead projector.

A brave and original approach, but it became detrimental to the play as the information overload became confusing and disorientating.

If this was symbolically echoing the way in which Underwich UK Plc was pulling the wool over the eyes of villagers, then it worked on this level.

Sadly, on more fundamental level - that of the production - it lacked coherency and made it difficult to know what to focus on and when.

This seemed like an opportunity wasted, but the climax did as all the best plays do - it asked questions rather than answered them.