Car hurtles onto the stage, thumping with techno beats, as four joyriders speed off in their latest prize, tanked up and more than a little manic. Theatre Absolute, with the Belgrade Theatre from Coventry, presents this high-voltage ride through a nightmarish cityscape, inhabited by teenage petty criminals, their victims and the well-meaning probation officer who tries to mediate between the two. Directed by Mark Babych and with a 1999 Edinburgh Fringe First under its belt, it's the latest in the post-Trainspotting wave of British theatre, which delves into the urban drug and crime scene and the predicament of disadvantaged, nihilistic, young people.

Based on his experience in the probation service, Chris O'Connell's play is undeniably heartfelt. But as it teases out questions of social responsibility and guilt, it lapses into the kind of didacticism that is the kiss of death for theatre, and the dangers of melodrama and sensationalism are hovering throughout. Characters going spectacularly off the rails, brandishing a gun or driving a car off a cliff - these plot elements might be convincing if they were supported by fuller characterisation and clearer communication to the audience.

Perhaps, under different, sharper, direction, with better use of the stage, this production could have delivered what it promised. There was an unclear, uneasy division between different time-frames and locations, and the transitions between naturalism and the heightened, quasifilmic, choreographed sequences were messy. While the energy of the excellent cast was electric, it simply wasn't going anywhere.

Part of the Fresh From Britain mini-season, which finished on Saturday