PILOT Theatre have come home to York for only five days with Running On The Cracks.

This is a particularly sardine-packed season at the Theatre Royal – no fewer than 52 shows in the January to August brochure – and so some runs might be shorter than expected, this one being the most noticeable.

Tonight is the last chance in York to see what is a landmark touring show: the first novel for teenagers and young adults by The Gruffalo writer and Children’s Laureate Julia Donaldson to be transferred to the stage.

The co-production marks another first: the inaugural Anglo-Scottish alliance between Pilot Theatre of York and the Tron Theatre of Glasgow. Tron’s artistic director, Andy Arnold, has written the punchy adaptation; Pilot associate director Katie Posner is in the director’s seat for the fast and often furious 70-minute thriller.

In style it is far removed from the multi-media shows so associated with Pilot under artistic director Marcus Romer. Instead, designer Gem Greaves gives Donaldson’s story of runaways, identity, survival and friendships blossoming in strange situations a rudimentary setting with rough-hewn “drawers” that open out from a step or to form a chair. Video is nowhere to be seen.

This throws the focus back on to the traditional theatre art of storytelling by a cast of five, three of whom play multiple roles.

At the heart of the story are two teenagers, very much in keeping with Pilot’s work for a young audience. Leo (Jessica Henwick), 15, is the home-educated bright girl whose musician parents have died in a plane crash, leaving her in the over-attentive care of her strange, bird-loving Uncle John (Stephen Clyde).

She escapes him by jumping on a train to Glasgow, penniless but not without guile, to seek the Chinese grandparents she never knew. The papers are quickly on to her Missing Girl story, which is spotted by Finlay (Grant McDonald) a 13-year-old paper boy, whose predilection for eyeliner and black nail varnish already marks him out from his exasperated family. He sees a chance to gain financial reward by tracking her down.

Will Leo’s “pervert” Uncle find her? Will she find her family? The thriller structure frames a story that has the smack of a kitchen-sink drama, especially in the character of Mary (Gaylie Runciman), a Johnny Cash-loving, friendly and kind woman, who befriends both Leo and Finlay, but suffers from unpredictable behaviour brought on by mental illness.

All the cast, completed by Suni La, bring energy, conviction, humour and a ring of darkness to Posner’s powerful, physically driven and mentally tough production.

Running On The Cracks, Pilot Theatre and Tron Theatre, York Theatre Royal Studio, tonight and tomorrow at 7.45pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk