THERE is a dramatic twist to this coming-of-age saga that actually comes at the beginning rather than as a denouement, yet in fact this ploy adds a piquancy to the largely dialogue-driven theme.

This new stage production has been adapted with considerable sympathy and skill by Manon Eames from the original novel by Emry Humphreys set in North Wales in the 1920s and 30s.

It charts the early lives of three lads from their first day at school and through into their teenage years, and into young adulthood as they discover with a jolt that life’s vagaries can often upset the desires and ambitions of most people.

The action focuses on the stories unfolding around these boys and their friends and families, who all live in and around a seaside town on the Welsh coast.

Michael is the local rector’s son with high expectations, while Albie is from a council estate and looking for escape, and Welsh- speaking Iorwerth, who lives on a farm, is burning with passion for the chapel and fervour to be a preacher.

The powerful performances by Gareth Milton as Michael, Dyfed Potter as Albie and Dylan Williams as Iorwerth are the key to this production’s success and director Tim Baker ensures that there is no let-up in either pace or emotion.

The very nature of the play demands attention from an audience but this is more than well rewarded with all seven members of the cast – each taking on a series of associated parts – delivering the dialogue with a clarity of diction and enthusiasm which grips from the start.

Apart from the principals, the remaining cast, Catrin Aaron, Llyr Evans, Alys Thomas and Jonathan Nefydd, provide the essential support and ballast with energy and commitment.

Baker puts a sure hand on this corking interpretation by Eames as each of the boys finds their abilities and emotions challenged and then re-focused, although not always to their satisfaction.

It’s a fine piece of theatre expertly directed and acted with the necessary passion to convey how tragically all these young hopes are ultimately doomed even before they are properly shaped.