Morning, the new play by Simon Stephens, is not just a play that enforces Stephens’s reputation as one of the most contemporary writers of our generation, but also – we hope – a palpable shift in writers and directors understanding that writing for young people is not seen as a lesser art. Performed by the members of the Lyric Young Company and directed by Lyric Hammersmith’s Artistic Director, Sean Holmes, this stark and bold production takes centre stage at the Traverse Theatre as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival before transferring to the Lyric in September. Developed through workshops with the young participants, Stephens’s play looks at the events surrounding a teenage game that goes too far. Friendships strained, police enquiries and a secret buried, Morning is a coming-of-age production that packs a punch.

Cat (Joana Nastari) is leaving for university, but her friend Stephanie (Scarlet Billham) doesn’t want her to leave and tries her best to keep her tied down. As a leaving present, Stephanie offers Cat a threesome with her boyfriend Stephen (Ted Reilly), but their game of kissing and suggestive flirting goes too far, and in a matter of moments Stephen is tied and gagged at the mercy of the two girls. Morning isn’t your usual young persons play – it confounds and provokes, offering a snapshot of youth with a distinct voice that screams and shouts at its audience. With a stark and minimalist design from Hyemi Shin, the feeling that this play has gained much from Stephens last production for the Lyric, Three Kingdoms, is apparent. The quality of work is bold and – whilst I don’t want to generalise to this extreme – it has a feeling of youthful and artistic German theatre, offering no compensations because the actors are young and representing their age onstage. If anything, youthfulness is exposed and celebrated, in all its beauty and brutality.

Billham’s Stephanie is perhaps the most complicated of the characters: a needy, compulsive and manipulative liar, whose anger gets the better of her. Whilst it is difficult to find a connection to the character, Billham does well to turn this into an engrossing performance, especially during scenes with Nastari, whose natural portrayal of Cat works perfectly. Stephen, performed by Reilly, is a capable performer and touches upon a sensitivity and quirkiness that comes from Stephens’s writing, but it is from ensemble as a whole that lifts the text even higher. It is only after several hours of pondering the narrative and directional choices of Morning that the nuances of the production begin to come through. It is for the most part a bold and adventurous leap into the unknown for the cast, harnessing Stephens’s writing with force – and here is where the joy of the show can be found.

Unlike much of the work that seems to be written and engaged for young people, Morning steps the output up a gear. It’s an unflinching look at young people today, caught in the horrors of representing movies and games whilst embracing their sexual freedom. Too often we try to wrap young people in a bubble of protection, but Holmes tears this apart. The starkness and confrontational direction is chilling, and whilst it doesn’t hit entirely in full force, there are moments of intense power that remain with you long after you’ve left the theatre.

**** – 4/5 stars

Morning is playing at the Traverse Theatre until 19 August before transferring to the Lyric Hammersmith. For more information and tickets see the Edinburgh Fringe website.