A NEW £17m college is preparing to raise the curtain on its first major theatre production.

Performing arts students at Stockton Riverside College, which was declared open in January, are rehearsing their lines for a modern satire on cinema.

Muliplex, by Chris William-Hill, is a fantasy of what lies in the sinister parallel world beneath a dimly-lit auditoria and candy-coloured foyers of a multiplex cinema. The college's studio theatre will host the production between March 25 and 27, with shows starting at 7.30pm.

Staff at the college, which was previously Stockton and Billingham College, are hailing the production as a coup for the fledgling theatre.

Tickets are priced at £4.50 ( £3.50 concessions) and are available from The Riverside Studio box office on (01642) 865500