EACH year in England, more than 250,000 people are reported as missing. Some are merely late but the majority are missing by choice.

What drives someone to give up everything they have ever known, ponders Fin Kennedy in How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found, the first York Theatre Royal Young Actors Company production of 2012.

In Kennedy’s fast-paced story of a young man at a crossroads, Charlie holds the urn of his cremated mother in his hands. He is in debt, in trouble and in despair, but with his world crumbling around him, he is offered the chance to change his life. To do so, he will have to make ‘Charlie’ disappear completely.

First staged at the Sheffield Crucible in 2005, the play is now being revived by Theatre Royal Young Actors Company director Julian Ollive.

“It’s not set in a specific year but I’m updating it to 2012 in terms of costume and a couple of references because, if anything, it’s even more apt now, as it talks a lot about capitalism,” he says.

Charlie is a 29-year-old brand manager whose job involves “trying to sell things that people don’t need or want”.

“He’s reached a point where he’s reacting against that,” says Julian. “He sees the vacuous life he’s had, working seven days a week, 16 hours a day, and the trigger for change is that his mother has just died. That makes him change everything, becoming ‘Adam’ rather than ‘Charlie’.”

The play has 25 different scenes, lots of locations and numerous characters. “It was done with five actors in Sheffield, but I’m doing it with eight,” says Julian. “There’ll be two who don’t do more than one role but the rest do.”

Among those will be 25-year-old Mandie Hughes, budding actress and Theatre Royal stage-door receptionist. “I’m playing an American client, a party girl, a pawn broker and a character called Someone!” she says. “After university, it’s hard to find plays to be in and chances for people to see you perform, and as I’m not going to drama school, it’s difficult to bridge that gap between studying and trying to become a professional actress, so the Young Actors Company is a good opportunity to gain more experience.”

• York Theatre Royal Young Actors Company, How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found, The Studio, York Theatre Royal, Wednesday to Saturday, 7.45pm.