School uniforms and buildings do not change much over decades, which is one of the reasons the setting of Simon Stephens' award-winning play from 2009 feels so familiar. The sixth-form library–cum-common room of a Stockport public school is timelessly drab. With a punk soundtrack blasting through scene-changing tableaux choreographed by David Bolger, this production brilliantly captures pent-up adolescent energy, as a group of students prepare for exams.
Director Selina Cartmell brings out the shifting power dynamics within the group of seven, and cranks up the tension. In the absence of adults, or of any supervision, they experience freedom within a confined space. Their banter, flirtations and arguments become attempts to assert themselves and test each other. Initially the bullying Bennet (Ian Toner) is in control of the room, dominating his girlfriend Cissy (Aisha Fabienne Ross). The butt of his taunts, the nerdy Chadwick (Rory Corcoran), turns the tables on him, making a cleverly apocalyptic speech about the doomed future of humanity, a fate he regards with almost comical equanimity.
Finely tuned performances express the frustrations of these characters. Restricted by the school regime, they are also afraid of the outside world, and uncertain about the future. Even the newcomer to the school, Lily (Lauren Coe) is not as poised and worldly as she seems. Her character, and those of the other two female students, is underwritten however, with one unconvincing scene in which the three girls speculate about their lives after A-levels.
The group's combination of bravado and insecurity reaches an extreme in the nervy William (Rhys Dunlop). Inventing versions of himself to impress Lily, he is crushed when she refuses to go out with him. Dunlop subtly portrays his gradual shift from an eccentric fantasist to something much more unstable, and threatening. As with the bullying that preceded it, the outbreak of violence challenges the audience to ask ourselves what we would have done to prevent it.
• Until 6 September. Box office: 028 9038 1081. Venue: Lyric theatre, Belfast
