Maddermarket's youth theatre group Madder Red performed the production Remote - a tale of teenage desperation that explores what happens as we begin to understand our place in the world.

Some times things just get too much: this tale of teenage desperation explores what happens as we begin to understand our place in the world.

Performed by the Maddermarket's youth theatre group Madder Red, the piece has a large cast with eight main characters and an 11-strong chorus.

That chorus provides the play's narration, driving the action. The ensemble coped well with the choreography and cues, but I suspect it's a flaw in Stef Smith's script that the device is over-relied on, leaving the action a little, well, remote.

Ruby Baines is disdainful and detached as the protagonist Antler, trying to find meaning in her young life, with maybe boyfriend a suitably naïve Wilf Olford. Gemma Drew gives good snarl as gang lieutenant Skin, more dominating than apparent leader Blister (Gethin Clark).

Raffy Dickins-Eastick and Harriet Hathway tackle a subplot of evolving sexuality with an evocative mix of tenderness and fear, and Wilf Offord keeps oddball Desk suitably strange.

The hour straight run has decent pace, but Pip Sessions' direction could have perhaps made more of the Maddermarket's galleries to spice up the staging.