THIRTY three budding young actors York and beyond have spent the past two months rehearsing for the first York Theatre Royal youth theatre productions of this academic year, Mr Puntila And His Man Matti and The Circle Of Chalk.

The first is a Lee Hall translation of a Bertolt Brecht play, the second has been written by youth theatre leader and York performance poet Henry Raby, adapted from Brecht’s work.

While both take place in the Theatre Royal Studio, the two performances are entirely separate, performed at 6.30pm and 8.30pm respectively tonight and tomorrow by separate casts of 16 to 19 year olds.

Natalie Quatermass, the Theatre Royal Youth Theatre Director (maternity cover), directs Puntila; Julian Ollive, the theatre’s Education & Young Actors Associate, directs the other.

"Julian and I decided to work with Brechtian stories with the 16-plus youth theatre groups this year as so many of the themes in his work – displacement and migration, greed and inequality, freedom and oppression – are so prevalent in today’s media,” says Natalie. "It’s really important that the young people are telling a story that is connected to them and their world.”

Puntila, a rich landowner, suffers from a divided personality. When drunk, he is human and humane; when sober, rude and self-centred. He plays havoc with his workmen, his women, his daughter’s marital arrangements and the loyalty of his sardonic chauffeur, Matti, in a lesser-known Brecht play full of songs, biting wit and physical humour.

The Circle Of Chalk is a retelling of The Caucasian Chalk Circle, set within a contemporary context, exploring what still forges family ties in the most dire of circumstances. From the Judgement of Solomon through to Brecht’s post-war setting in the Caucasus, the story of the chalk circle tells the tale of a child trying to decide who its true mother is.

Jack Fry, 17, a musical theatre student at York College, is playing an attache in Puntila. "He's a a representative from a wealthy family from another country or county, who has come to Mr Puntila's state to marry his daughter,, Eva," he says. "At first he's very respected by Mr Puntila, but then when Mr Puntila gets very drunk, he punches him and banishes the attache from his state."

Chris Vernon-Rees, an 18-year-old A-level student at Easingwold College, takes the role of Matti. "He's Mr Puntila's chauffeur and represents the working man in the play," he says. "We're playing the play set in the modern day and the 1940s; all the cast are playing modern protestors and then take on parts within the story from the 1940s, so that there are both hints of today and the past."

Analysing the role of protests in today's world, Jack says: "It takes many different forms now. It used to be people parading down streets with banners; now it could be protesting through art, music, social media; so many different ways."

Lily Stone, a 17-year-old A-Level student from All Saints School, who is appearing in The Circle Of Chalk, takes up Jack's thoughts on protests. "Protesting is still taking place; I think we just get less media coverage of it today, except when protestors start their campaigns of occupation to show they're dissatisfied with our political system and for those who are in power," she says. "So there's a parallel you can draw between the greed and corruption that Puntila displays and the same greed and corruption today."

Julian Ollive commissioned Henry Raby's new take on The Caucasian Chalk Circle in order to draw parallels with issues of displacement today. "I took my group to the Friargate Theatre to hear a talk by a Palestinian actor from the Freedom Theatre Company. He had trained in Norway and so he had a Norwegian passport that meant he could come here, but the Freedom artistic director was prevented from coming," he says.

"In terms of him talking about being displaced, it had parallels with The Circle Of Chalk. So we came up with the meta-narrative for our piece about young people being displaced and then debated about what family is, what home is."

Lily takes up Julian's thread of thought. "When you think about the main questions of the piece, about where you are happiest, and what is home, you think, 'what would I do in that situation of being displaced?'. It's interesting to see it from that perspective, especially after hearing what the Freedom Theatre actor said. Here in York that sense of home runs into the ground and into the walls."

Should you be wondering what role LIly will be playing, she has two parts. "I'm a monk and an aid," she says. "A drunk monk, but not a drunk aid!" Intriguing.

Tickets can be booked on 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk