Moving Family

Paul Charlton has been a busy man. Not content with co-writing the TV transfer of sketch show/group The Ginge, The Geordie and The Geek, the writer has eaked out time to knock up this pacy and poignant comedy. More than that, he's somehow found a group of youngsters with the energy and stage presence to do it justice. The result is an insightful piece of theatre about youth – one that can't be dismissed as just another piece of youth theatre.

So, two families—one posh, one less so—are yoked together when the parents decide to shack up. Their kids—two brother and sister pairings—are crammed into the back of the removal van and must thrash out their myriad differences, and it's here we find them as they goad, browbeat and grapple for position in the new world order. At the heart of this is the issue of race. Charlton sets up a nice dynamic between an EDL-sympathising brother and his new mixed-race half-sister as they toss back and forth the handed-down stories and fallacious logics of racial identity. In a trice, this could easily suffocate under well-intentioned but turgid public education. But not here: Charlton's script is astonishingly tight, and well represented by players who leap on their cues, bantering and bickering with real commitment.

There's the odd moment where the drama doesn't quite errupt as angrily or convinvincingly as it should. But it's a small criticism of a piece which snaps a respectful and critical portrait of four teenagers' imperfect attempts to grasp the warp and weft of politics, ethics and identity.