YORK Theatre Royal and Pilot Theatre Company are marking the tenth anniversary of Jonathan Harvey's Beautiful Thing with a Studio co-production that opens on Thursday.

You may be unfamiliar with Beautiful Thing, winner of the John Whiting Award in 1994; likewise with The Cherry Blossom, which brought Harvey the Girobank Young Writer of the Year Award in 1987, and Babies, winner of the George Devine Award in 1993. However, Harvey also has written one of the more unusual sitcoms of recent times, the Kathy Burke vehicle Gimme Gimme Gimme.

In other words, this man has form, and the heart-warming urban fairytale of Beautiful Thing introduces another writer to the Theatre Royal roster: one of the many benefits brought about by opening The Studio.

A play about coming of age and finding yourself, Beautiful Thing finds teenagers Jamie, Ste and Leah kicking their heels on their estate during a long hot summer. When his father lashes out, Ste finds solace with Jamie's family, receiving the motherly love he has never known and a friendship which turns his life around.

Pilot artistic director Marcus Romer is directing the production with his customary boundless enthusiasm.

"It's a fantastic love story, of two 16-year-old boys, which is handled very delicately," he says. "Pilot are not noted for doing uplifting pieces of theatre - which goes against what we normally do - but this is a really joyous play."

Pilot has a tradition for tackling contemporary issues in the most modern settings, latterly bringing Jim Cartwright's Road forward from the 1980s to today. Sure enough Beautiful Thing will be moved forward.

"This year is the play's tenth anniversary and you won't be amazed that we're not setting it in 1993! While we don't make specific reference to when it's set, it does allow us to have a modern soundtrack, as well as some fantastic, big camp retro Mama Cass music, which is stipulated in the script," says Marcus.

Cutting-edge contemporary theatre always runs the risk of upsetting audience members: the current Studio production of Irvine Welsh's sex and drugs and dole drama, Trainspotting, has prompted a letter in today's Evening Press complaining of "filth and more filth and obscenities". Beautiful Thing may spark a response too with its relationship between 16 year-old-boys.

As with all Pilot productions, the company has produced an education pack for schools on its website, and for Beautiful Thing the pack includes an advisory note saying that teachers planning to bring students to the play require approval from the head teacher.

"The play is humorous but within a serious context," says Marcus. "It's a play about relationships in general and about people understanding the needs of others," says Marcus. "That is the strength of this play: it's not about homosexuality but about growing up in relationships.

"All those issues they are facing, we all come up against them in our own relationships, as we realise that love can be a beautiful thing."

Beautiful Thing, The Studio, York Theatre Royal, June 5 to 28. Box office: 01904 623568.

Updated: 10:23 Friday, May 30, 2003