NEIL Bartlett, purveyor of dark delights on the London stage, once casually remarked to artistic director Marcus Romer how Pilot Theatre Company kept telling the same story.

That revolving door of a story always involves young people dealing with adversity in extreme circumstances, be it the absence of adults in the island-bound Lord Of The Flies or premature death and Internet chat rooms in a/s/l?: Age/Sex/Location? Bloodtide is indeed more of the same, but is the first production where that repetition has had a detrimental effect, in that neither the artistic standards nor the story itself compares favourably with past work.

Bloodtide is novelist Melvin Burgess's futuristic re-telling of the Norse-age Volsunga sagas, set in 2027 in an England ripped asunder by civil war. London is the battlefield for warring gang lords; beyond the capital, rotting cities are the peopled by half-men. Fourteen-year-old Signy (Sarah Quintrell) is married off by her ganglord father to his rival Conor (Karl Haynes) for a quick-fix peace, but like a George Best promise, it will never last.

Conor reminds you of Shakespeare's Richard III, Signy of Juliet; her brother Siggy (Rachid Sabitri) of any number of young Jacobean revengers. Macbeth is everywhere, even in Romer's script, the spectre of Greek drama haunts every scene, and when cloning takes Bloodtide into the future, Ridley Scott's film Blade Runner turns up like Banquo's ghost.

None of this would matter if play, dialogue or performances were outstanding, but all three fall short.

Pilot, the company in residence at York Theatre Royal, continues to construct its theatre around the dual templates of multi-media experimentation and educational work for secondary school pupils.

The work is designed to nurture youthful interest rather than alienate an older audience, but in the way that you suddenly hit an age where you lambast the lack of a good tune on Top Of The Pops or bemoan a cover version for being unfit to wipe the dust off the vinyl original, Bloodtide is junior theatre for a new age of theatregoer. Significantly, the whooping and whistling at the finale came only from the teens in the stalls. Elsewhere, the response was muted.

The Pilot trademarks merely tick over, from the film-style opening and closing credits, to the multi-level, raked set design by Ali Allen that here could pass for a Mad Max playground. The video imagery by Romer and cinematic score from Sandy Nuttgens could equally serve a dance drama by Phoenix Dance Theatre.

Faroque Khan's movement work adds a new dimension, but Bloodtide's shock of the new - a baby is shot in the finale - is merely the emperor's new clothes.

Bloodtide, Pilot Theatre Company, York Theatre Royal, until February 22, then on tour. Box office: 01904 623568.

Updated: 10:51 Monday, February 16, 2004