CANBERRA Youth Theatre is about to launch a tour of its controversial Australian premiere production “Cockroach” to  Sydney  and Melbourne.

Written by British playwright Sam Holcroft, “Cockroach” is set in a secondary school biology lab, where a restless group of teens are coping with detention in various ways.

For their teacher, Beth, it’s a chance to push a little further, to try for a little hope, a little ambition, but the bloody wider world outside the school gates, is encroaching. Is that a pun?

Youth Theatre’s director Karla Conway says, “Cockroach” is “a bold work, which challenges its audience to brutally engage in the realities of adolescent struggle. The context of the war in the play heightens the stakes, but it’s no different that the hormone war that teens face daily in their own bodies”.

The company has been  invited by the  Australian Theatre for Young People to tour the work to The Wharf  Theatre in Sydney and to St Martins Youth Arts Centre in Melbourne as part of their 2012 seasons. The play will have two shows in Canberra before it goes interstate.

“Cockroach”, at C Block Theatre, 7pm, Gorman House Arts Centre, February 23-24. Bookings to www.cytc.net

Photos by Nick Stannard