For the last few weeks, a group of bright young act­ors have been hard at work at the Long Cloud Youth Theatre’s sum­mer school work­shop. The sum­mer school attendees – aged from 16 to 21 – were split into two groups that pro­duced Daugh­ters of Heav­en and The Pic­ture of Dori­an Gray. And these two pro­duc­tions are cur­rently play­ing on altern­ate nights at Down­stage.

“Daugh­ters of Heav­en” is the New Zea­l­and true-crime tale of the Park­er-Hul­me murder, best known through Peter Jack­son’s later film “Heav­enly Creatures”. “The Pic­ture of Dori­an Gray” is based on the Oscar Wilde nov­el, and the play sparkles with his wicked wit and sim­mers with men­ace.

The work­shop nature of the pro­duc­tions offer the act­ors the chance to play char­ac­ters out­side their typ­ic­al range – there aren’t many 20-year-olds who’d be cast as a middle-aged pro­fess­or – but the pro­duc­tions don’t try to hide this cast­ing. Both start with the neut­rally dressed play­ers glee­fully throw­ing on rep­res­ent­at­ive cos­tumes, like kids play­ing dress-up.

And the free­dom of the work­shop also extends to the sta­ging. Both plays have min­im­al props and no built set, but the clev­er dir­ec­tion makes per­fect use of this. Soph­ie Roberts dir­ec­tion of Daugh­ters con­jures up the spa­cious, posh Park­er house, as well as the cramped Hul­me home. While Willem Wassen­aar’s dir­ec­tion of Dori­an Gray extra­vag­antly presents the action in a series of tableaus, and keeps unused act­ors watch­ing and wait­ing in the front row.

The young act­ors are cast well, with the lead roles in both pro­duc­tions handly their demand­ing roles with skill, par­tic­u­larly Ben Craw­ford as the toff Lord Henry Wot­ton. But part of the magic is noti­cing act­ors lurk­ing in minor roles who man­age to have that X‑factor that makes you think, “Oh, s/he is going to be a star some day”.

The Long Cloud pro­duc­tions are both enjoy­able glimpses of the future of New Zea­l­and theatre.