The term "white trash" is derogatory. But there is nothing at all derogatory about this latest piece from Quarantine, a company that specialises in weaving fictions from the real stuff and stories of people's everyday lives. Everywhere Quarantine delves, it uncovers the extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary and banal.
Using non-professional actors recruited through workshops in the Manchester area, and drawing strongly on their lives and stories, White Trash offers neither judgments nor sociology - and not a great deal of narrative either. However, in 90 minutes of stop-start energy, it gives a sideways glimpse into the hearts and souls of these youngsters, their complicated interlocking relationships, their ways of survival.
The audience become co-conspirators in a piece that puts them on an equal footing with the performers, offering up these young men exactly as they are. Set around a pool table, the show manages to be both celebratory and quite extraordinarily moving without being in the slightest bit sentimental. The entire evening has a matter-of-fact lyricism about it, notably in a stark moment when two men square up to each other as if to fight and instead fall gracefully into each other's waiting arms in a daring game of trust.
There is plenty of the less angelic side of these lads on display, too - yet you come away with a sense of the fabric and rich emotional texture of their lives that defies all traditional stereotypes of the laddish, emotionally disconnected young man. Here, feeling runs deep. It is displayed through the soundtracks of their lives and the blisteringly physical: Christine Devaney's eloquent choreography is performed so beautifully, it is hard to believe that these performers are untrained in dance. They are certainly trained in life.
· Until March 20. Box office: 0161-274 0600.
