YORK, Milan and Glasgow forge links for the next Studio production at the Theatre Royal.

Pilot Theatre, company in residence at the York theatre, is staging the new devised play What Light with Milanese company Elsinor Teatro in a co-production commissioned as part of the European Platform 11+, a project that involves 13 companies from 12 European countries.

The North Yorkshire and Italian companies are working with students Lynsey-Anne Moffat, Daniel Cameron and Chris Towner-Jones from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. In addition, the creative team has been joined by final-year lighting design and stage management students from the Scottish academy.

What Light is co-written by Elsinor resident writer Giuditta Mingucci and Pilot Theatre associate writer Richard Hurford, whose plays include Catcher, The Mystery Of Jack and The Clones Of Chaos.

The collaboration began last November when Richard and Pilot associate director Katie Posner visited Milan to liaise with Giuditta and designer Ilaria Ariemme, who in turn came to York in late January.

The resulting play is to be performed by the Pilot cast not only in York but also at the Elsinor Teatro Stabile D’innovazione, Milan, on June 6 and 7 and the Theatre Junge Generation, Dresden, Germany, from June 15 to 18.

What Light explores a vision of the world in the not-too-distant future.

“It deals with the consequences of the actions we’re all taking right now, with a theme of environmental issues cutting across the play,” says Katie.

The world of 2061 has no school, no shops and no internet and no way out of a life filled with fear and hate. Here 14-year-old Sid lives behind barbed wire fences, and as he attempts to find out just what happened to the world from his grandpa, one day a girl with blood on her hand appears from the opposite camp and the world begins to change.

What Light will make its debut at the Theatre Royal as part of the European Platform Festival for 11 to 16 year olds. “But it will also appeal to a much wider age range, including children as young as nine, due to the themes and issues it explores,” says Katie.

Giuditta and Richard first met in Germany in 2009 and the writing project started “from what we had in common”. “Out of that then came the differences. As English is not my first language, I wrote in Italian and then translated it into English, and once Richard and I started working together, I wrote directly in English,” she says.

“Our first conversation was about Moby Dick in a Mexican restaurant in Berlin,” Richard reminds her. Who could have foreseen that it would lead to such a fruitful theatrical liaison?

• What Light runs in The Studio, York Theatre Royal from tomorrow until May 21. Performances: 1.30pm, May 11, 12, 17, 18, 19; 2pm, May 14, 21; 7.45pm, May 13, 17, 19, 20. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Suitable for nine year olds and upwards.

• For more information on the Platform 11+ project, visit platform11plus.ning.com