WELCOME to the house of fun as the young actors of the Grand Opera House Stage Experience summer school come of age under the guidance of director and choreographer Louise Denison.

She began rehearsals last Saturday for Our House, a love story by Tim Firth set to the music and lyrics of Camden nutty boys Madness,and by Monday lunchtime had musical routines for Baggy Trousers and Embarrassment knocked into shape with typical exuberance.

By Thursday next week, the cast of 55 will be ready to give it the "London large" in a story of the right path, the wrong path, and what happens when you choose both, as Joe Casey does on his 16th birthday, after his effort to impress girl-of-his-dreams Sarah on their first date goes wrong.

He breaks into the building site overlooking his home on Casey Street but the police turn up, at which point Joe's life splits into two: Good Joe, who stays and takes his punishment, and Bad Joe, who flees to the wrong side of the tracks.

In Louise's words, Our House is a "terribly bitty piece with so many scenes", and she learnt plenty from her first experience of directing it in 2011.

"I did it in Harrogate with the St Andrew's Players and because it's so bitty, it's really difficult to get a rhythm going and it can feel so disjointed, as it has a Sliding Doors kind of structure with parallel stories," she says.

"That can be very confusing, but this time I'm finding the pace and the flow, even if the audience will have to work hard."

Louise's policy will be to "make sure the key lines in the story hit the audience between the eyes".

"The crux of each scene has to be absolutely spelled out in black and white, and the boy's dead father helps with that as the show's narrator, keeping the story alive and helping the audience to know where we are and where we're going."

The songs of Madness punctuate that story, their music-hall hits as popular now with a younger generation as they were in the ska revival days of the Eighties.

"Most of them are party songs that come out for parties, for Christmas, for weddings, so there's a jolly, party vibe going on." says Louise.

"But saying that, most of the upbeat stuff is in the first half; and the darker songs come in the second half when the story is darker until the hits pile up again at the end."

Stage Experience present the York premiere of Our House at the Grand Opera House, York, from July 31 to August 2; 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york