Adolescence is a difficult time, especially for The Children, who are on the cusp of adulthood but already feel dead. Trapped in a fairytale of their own creation, they infantilise each other, play out murders, imagine their own suicide and pray at the altar of tragic figures like Marilyn Monroe. Written and directed by Sophie Meehan, the thrust of Does Anybody Ever is deliberately allusive: these are teenagers who have no idea where their lives – if not cut short by their own hand – are going.

If The Children are still finding their way with the narrative, they have perfected their aesthetic. Stephen Lehane strings together an impressive set under a makeshift canopy, which is aesthetically sophisticated and fittingly evocative of childhood’s Sylvanian dreams. Choreography by Dylan Coburn-Gray, meanwhile, offers a poignant non-verbal expression of their angst, particularly in the penultimate scene.

Performed with impressive sang froid by Holly Copper, Pádraig Dooney and Rebecca Kealy, Does Anybody Ever just about reins in the melodramatic morbidity that threatens to turn the show into cliché. What results is a theatrically mature debut for The Children.