A huge set decorated with 12,000 copies of the Southern Daily Echo is to form the backdrop for a youth theatre's latest production.

A cast of 77 young people from the Eastleigh Borough Youth Theatre are to stage the musical Seize the Day - and to help set the scene the Daily Echo has donated 12,000 copies of the paper to build the group's largest set to date.

It takes the audience back to the 1920s and the newspaper strike - which is paralleled with last year's petrol strike - the musical asks how good we are at communicating, despite modern technology.

Youth theatre administrator Christine Farleigh, said: "We race through life at breakneck speed, but how often do we stop and listen to one another?

"Staged in the year 2000, but based on happenings in the 1920s, Seize the Day is just as, if not more, relevant today as it was then."

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