Theatre/ “You Can’t Tell Anyone”, Canberra Youth Theatre. At Courtyard Studio. August 10-20. Reviewed by ALANNA MACLEAN.

“YOU Can’t Tell Anyone” is a somewhat wild new piece by Joanna Richards about a group of teenagers on the edge of leaving school and passing into adulthood.

It’s given an  imaginative and energetic production by director Caitlin Baker and a diverse cast of eight.

A party, the last before they all go on separate paths, happens at the house of  sisters Tilly (Emily O’Mahoney) and Gwen (Ella Buckley). Their father appears to have recently died by suicide. Tilly is not keen on the party but Gwen insists and a mob of diverse guests materialise.

Is Jeremy (Jake Robinson) interested in the shyer Tilly or the more outgoing  Gwen? Assertive Kat (Paris Scharkie) arrives and soon there is the party Tilly didn’t want as Kat is joined by Willa (Jessi Gooding) who dabbles in magic, cheerful Luke (Isaiah Prichard), bluff Benny (Lachlan Houen) and eventually the pragmatic Nicole (Breanna Kelly). There’s a certain strength in the play’s mapping of the interrelationships between these young people.

A game involving the signing of a book belonging to the dead father, (a piece of vandalism to Tilly) the repeated tossing of a coin and the asking of pointed and personal questions ensues and gradually the play becomes more surreal. Salt is scattered, mirrors are placed. Lights flicker. No one apparently can leave. Tensions abound. Echoes of teen horror movies creep in.

Kathleen Kershaw’s set is dominated by a magnificent bookcase, and the more mysterious moments are well supported by Ethan Hamill’s imaginative lighting and Patrick Haesler’s sound.

Overlapping speech can be a fine technique for heightening tension but it does need to be accompanied by clarity and tonal variation. There’s a danger of sacrificing meaning for effect. But the cast do an excellent job of differentiating the characters. There’s never any doubt as to who is who.

There’s tragedy in these lives though; parents die, cancer strikes. Sexual relations can be fraught. Finding one’s identity is tricky. Growing into adulthood is hard.

There’s much to like in the clarity of the portrayals in this production and new writing needs always to be welcomed.

Where the play goes in the finish, however, is uncertain. Is the audience encouraged to care enough about any of them? Do these characters have a future or are they doomed to be stuck forever in post adolescence? Is this “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,” where premature death comes as the end? Or is it the much less certain world of “Waiting for Godot”?