Risk

Street dance and physical theatre combine with the voices of young people in Risk, the latest collaboration between writer John Retallack and choreographer Andy Howitt, the team behind Club Asylum.

The result is a slightly unsatisfying work, that is entertaining without being particularly thought-provoking.

Whereas Retallack's earlier works focused on specific issues (asylum seekers and discrimination in Hannah and Hanna and Club Asylum, teenage sex and drug-taking in the recent Virgins), Risk takes a dizzying number of different approaches to its open-ended theme.

There's bullying, peer pressure, drinking, body image, pretty theft, physical abuse, estrangement from family and, in the case of The Prisoner (Martin Docherty), isolation from the wider world due to pathologically risk-averse behaviour.

Another distinguishing feature of Risk is that is has the feel of verbatim theatre - rather than weaving together a narrative that brings together the five characters, the playwright has given each an extended monologue. Knowing that young people were closely involved in the creative process, it's difficult to know where their testimonies end and the writer's craft begins.

Andy Howitt's choreography successfully plays to the strengths of the five performers - a charismatic Paul J Corrigan takes centre stage for the synchronised break dance routines, and has the skills to compliment the cocky boasts of his character, The Gambler.

The diverse soundtrack features a sprinkling of Scottish artists alongside the likes of The Prodigy, Eminem and ELO. These aren't just token tartan nods, either - one of the show's most affecting sequences is set to a beautiful track called Always Here by Glasgow band Speedway. In graceful slow motion, Annamarie Fulton's The Opponent drunkenly flails from one rescuer to the next.

Fulton's performance is a little self-conscious at times, but her character is perhaps the most intriguing. Transformed by peer pressure from a confident, in-control young woman who loves to dance to a drunk who can't remember the weekends, her story lends itself best to the form of Risk, and feels less like a social work case study than those of The Rebel (Edward McGurn) and The Fighter (Michelle Edwards).

As an introduction to dance theatre for young audiences, Risk is engaging and has a few great sequences. If the script disappoints, it's because the writer's previous plays have set the bar so high.