Jenny de Klerk

OUNG people are young people in any age and with any taste in music and dance. These late teens in Brooklyn, New York, in the 1970s, boxed in by struggling parents, a lack of education and access to only lowlevel jobs, still aspire to a better life and dream the impossible dream, even if they know it is unlikely to be realised.

In one remarkable scene the panels of the cleverly-designed set open up into prison cells where the teenagers dance their despair.

Across the stage, thrown into the background, is the bridge from down-and-out Brooklyn to the outer world on which the teens teeter and dare.

Tony Manero, the black sheep of his poor but proud family, always eclipsed by his elder brother, survives his boring job lugging paint tins by dancing at the local dance studio and setting the floor alight at the local disco club. He is the king of dance, admired by all.

Daniel Buys takes this role with charm and presence. He is a real “triple threat”, able to act, sing and dance with equal ability.

As always with teens starting to feel what maturing boys feel, he is caught between girls: the clinging Annette (LJ Neilson) – If I can’t have you I don’t want

Ynobody – and the ambitious, challenging Stephanie (Natasha van der Merwe) – More than a woman – who is trying to move on and out, both strong performances.

The goal is the local dance competition at the club; who will he choose as a partner, who will win?

Intertwining around the boy-meets-girl theme are the other facets of life in the streets; clashes with opposing Spanish