OVER the coming year, Bolton's award-winning Octagon Theatre will present a series of issue-based productions from six of the UK's leading theatre companies for young people.

Under the title of the Co-op Young People's Theatre Programme, the first of these productions is Big Baby by Brendan Murray, presented by Scottish theatre company Visible Fictions on Thursday, October 13 at 7pm.

The production is aimed at young people aged 13 and over, and the Octagon will be the only English date for this production.

It tells the story of Big Baby, who is special - a wunderkind, a genius. He talks at a day old; by day three he's enrolled in the best school in London, and by day five he's mixing with the rich and the famous. Everyone would like their child to be like Big Baby . . . but how far should adults be prepared to go to push the 21st Century's "perfect" child, and is it a price worth paying?

Big Baby is a funny, satirical, hard-hitting new play about the expectations placed on young people to succeed. How much should parents and guardians sacrifice of themselves and their beliefs to give their kids "the best chance" in life?

The second in the Co-op Young People's Theatre Programme series, Trashed by Theatre Centre, will take place Thursday, November 3 at 7pm, and details of the remaining events in the series will be announced at the end of October.

Tickets for Big Baby at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton, are on sale now, priced £6 (£4 concessions). They can be bought from the Octagon Ticket Office on 01204 520661 or online at www.octagonbolton.co.uk