NEW, new, new. Everywhere you looked last night, there was something new at York Theatre Royal, so new that perhaps the theatre should have had a patina of dew.

Ludo Keston had arrived earlier in the week to take up his post as chief executive; the foyer was in its 2001 trim of coffee-house chic, all light wooden floors, sofas, bean bags and low-level tables. In the corner, York movie star Mark Addy was performing the official opening ceremony for The Studio, in the newly-converted paint workshop where he first worked. The opening performance of Tim Welton's directorial debut, John Godber's Happy Jack, would follow.

In the main auditorium, her notebook filling steadily, Youth Theatre Yorkshire director Jill Adamson was overseeing the dress rehearsal for the first production in her new involvement with York Theatre Royal Youth Theatre.

For four weeks, 40 young people aged 11 and 19 have worked together on the theatre's summer youth programme, taking on acting and production roles to mount this 65-minute stage production of John Wyndham's futuristic novel The Chrysalids.

Adapted for youth theatre performances by David Harrower, The Chrysalids' Orwellian story of a divided society could not be better timed in the light of the Channel Tunnel plight of asylum seekers and Catholic children finding their route to school by Loyalists in north Belfast.

The Chrysalids is set in the post-nuclear society of Waknuk, where a bigoted religious creed dictates that only those without mutation are allowed to remain, the alternative for many being banishment to the Fringe in Wyndham's version of ethnic cleansing.

Within the oppressive 'pure' society, a group with telepathic powers lives in fear of being found out, and must escape to a far-off land but their safe passage is assured only when the mutants come to their rescue: the message being that regardless of imperfections, all people are the same, making The Chrysalids an ideal choice of play for a youth theatre ensemble piece.

Adamson's young cast members all perform with strong vocal projection, but often there could be more physical expression and emotion in the voices. Lead players Matt Palfrey and Anna Siobhan Wilcox, the Romeo and Juliet figures of the play, are exempt from that criticism, both revealing blossoming stagecraft.

Chris Madin's portentous music is a bonus, and designer Rachana Jadhiv's canny adaptation of the remnants of The Three Musketeers set is put to good use in a production always on the move, even into the boxes and through the stalls.

York Theatre Royal Youth Theatre, The Chrysalids, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday, at 7.30pm nightly. Box office: 01904 623568.