The second Youthquake programme pairing an experienced writer with an emerging colleague features a wonderful cast, well drilled in only a day by Adura Onashile, and two cracking plays.
Squall by Rebecca Sweeney
This mildly dystopian drama with comic overtone is set in a high school where guns have become de rigueur.
More precisely, events take place in a stationery cupboard where an alarming emergency drill has sent three contrasting students.
Kay McAllister's Erin is a wild child, Alice played by Jamie Marie Leary her polar opposite and Rob, Michael Ajao, a calming influence, though their characters change quite drastically during a running time of around 30 minutes.
In that time, they debate power and gun control, as well as the need for resistance if the world is ever to become a better place.
Fucking Millennials by Kieran Hurley
Kieran Hurley has penned a politically and socially charged comedy set in a brothel co-op where Kay McAllister as Zara welcomes Mark McDonnell playing Iain.
The bold young woman tries to calm a man old enough to have been her headmaster (guess what is revealed early in the piece).
After some comic sex-chat, they each get to deliver set-piece speeches about how badly the young treat and need their elders and vice versa in an intelligent play that fits much into half an hour.