THERE is always a sting in the tale with any new wonder invention.

Texting, how useful, what fun it first seemed. Internet chat rooms, oh the teenage joy of communicating across the world. Yet stories are stacking up of the dangers lurking in hi-tech conversing, and playwrights are turning their cautionary gaze on these dark word games.

Sol B River's tale of child abuse, Two Tracks And Text Me, has opened at the West Yorkshire Playhouse; in Lucy Prebble's The Sugar Syndrome, at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, a girl meets a man twice her age on the Internet; and in The Studio at York Theatre Royal, Pilot Theatre Company premieres Richard Hurford's a/s/l, age/sex/location from next Thursday.

Presented by Pilot, the theatre's resident company, a/s/l is the first wholly new work - rather than an adaptation - to emerge from within the Theatre Royal for six years.

In the wake of a former US marine running off with a 12-year-old English girl after an Internet relationship, a/s/l could not be better timed in its study of the chat room, the cyber world where you can change identity, adopt new personalities and keep dreams and fantasies virtually real.

Hurford's drama tells the cautionary tale of 15-year-old Livia (the play's narrator, played by Rhea Bailey), who blames her uncommunicative parents for the death of her older sister, Jenny, whose body had been found washed up on a beach 11 years earlier. When she goes on line, Livia pretends to be the older girl, a course of action with tragic consequences.

Alongside Rhea in the cast of five is Mark Payton, latterly seen at the Theatre Royal in Loot and Amadeus, who plays two characters: Lenny, Livia's grief-stricken, bereaved father, and Conrad, the father of an American chat-room user, Carla (Effie Woods).

"Both these men are what they seem," says Mark. "I think the play touches on the idea of older men forging relationships with young girls over the Internet but there's a twist to it in a/s/l in that Conrad doesn't set out to do that but is drawn into using the chat room. Lenny has no idea of what a chat room is, and is just an innocent bystander."

Mark, in his forties, has as much grasp of chat rooms as Lenny, and 19-year-old Leeds actress Rhea does not use them either. "I'm a complete ignoramus about chat rooms!" admits Mark. "I can just about use the Internet but the whole language of the chat room had to be explained.

"It's been fascinating to read round the subject, especially when Microsoft made their announcement about shutting down teenage chat rooms, and the play is so relevant that we've actually been changing the script to keep up with what's been happening.

"We've also been pinning up stories of the latest chat-room incidents, and after a while, the more there are, you don't really want them there, as they're so disturbing."

Rhea attributes her aversion to computers to "my dad working in computers for a living". "I've never really been into them, and maybe that's why. I've always liked going out to do things instead," she says.

"Though I do like sending text messages, I believe that chat rooms are dangerous as you don't know if someone is telling the truth.

"Chat rooms can be a good way for young people to be heard when they're not being heard by their family, or they don't have any friends, but that's also when they could be drawn into the web. That's how easy it is."

Mark says that a/s/l is as much a mystery drama as a cautionary tale. "It's not a whodunit but a story where you wonder what actually happened. You know what's going on in Livia's head, because she tells you, but that may be different from what actually happened.

"So you will wonder which characters are real and which ones are only in her head because in the chat room someone can be anyone they want to be."

Rhea adds: "A large percentage of the play is saying that people are not what they seem, so you have to be careful what story you're telling and what you believe in the chat room. The play starts off with the more glamorous side of it, but there's a very clear moral point at the end, saying why it's not fun and why you should be truthful."

Pilot Theatre Company presents a/s/l, age/sex/location in The Studio, York Theatre Royal, October 30 to November 15. Tickets: £6 to £9, students and under 25s £3.50; ring 01904 623568.

Updated: 10:07 Friday, October 24, 2003