Students Lynsey-Anne Moffat, Daniel Cameron and Chris Towner-Jones from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow are joined by professional actor Sean Wildey for the Pilot Theatre and Elsinor Teatro world premiere of What Light in the York Theatre Royal Studio.

Co-written by Elsinor resident writer Giuditta Mingucci and Pilot associate writer Richard Hurford, the play explores a vision of the world in the not-too-distant future that envisages the consequences of the actions we are all taking now.

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.

“But there are some very funny parts to it,” says first-year student Daniel. “It’s more Mad Max than Star Wars,” says Chris. “It’s dystopian,” decides Sean. Lynsey plays the girl with bloody hands. “She’s a real rough-and-tumble tomboy; feral; she eats road-kill,” she says.

“She’s heavy-footed, not really a girl at all, and like Sid, she’s been told to stay away from the other side, but meeting him by chance and throwing insults at each other, they begin to think that maybe they are the same underneath and they want to find out what went wrong in the past.”

• What Light runs in The Studio, York Theatre Royal until May 21. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk Suitable for nine year olds and upwards.