Teenagers: they're not what they used to be. In fact they are a pretty tedious lot in Darren Murphy's coming of age drama set on the day that Karen, Nat and Stevo complete their GCSEs. "This is when it starts, we can do anything we like," declares Karen, a girl with the drive and the brains to get the hell out of Aldershot, although it seems pretty dumb that a girl with her eyes set on being a foreign correspondent hasn't yet got round to reading a newspaper.
Karen may be going places - even if it's only on an inter-rail pass around Europe - but boyfriend Nat and his best friend Stevo are having more difficulty leaving the past behind and facing up to the rest of their lives. By way of a little symbolic help, the location for their misspent youth and childhood dreams, a local tower block of derelict flats, is about to be razed to the ground.
It may be just as well, because sicko Stevo, under the influence of glue and bad boy Bobby, is claiming all sorts of weird things have happened there. He's got the toe in his crisp packet to prove that it is not just another one of his fantasies.
It is not long before Murphy's play has come crashing down, squashed by its own heavy-handed use of metaphor, some overly self-conscious writing and a production so dull it does the script no favours at all - although the young actors try hard. The relationship between Nat and Stevo is delicately done and suggests that Murphy has real talent, but this feels like an old play that is getting a production far too late, and the lack of energy and impetus in writing and production make for a pretty enervated evening.
· Until April 24. Box office: 0870 990 8454.
