Last Saturday is presented by the Old Museum Arts Centre Youth Panel – a group of teenagers who meet every week at OMAC to engage in a range of artistic projects including drama, dance, music and film.

The show, which is set in the near future, features an evil Deputy Mayor of Belfast who wants to get rid of the young people that congregate outside the City Hall on Saturday afternoons.

He hatches a plot to convince the mayor that it would be a good idea to ban Saturday altogether.

In the face of this, all the groups of young people – punks, goths, chavs, emos and millies – put aside their differences to fight back.

Against this backdrop, a love story develops between an emo kid (those with black hair, black clothing and a downbeat outlook) and a plastic (a girl who is into designer labels and considers Paris Hilton a style icon).

With a cast of 25 young people, aged 13-18, Last Saturday is as ensemble show, and it has its roots in reality.

Writer and director Kerry Rooney said: "I'd like to point out that the characters of the mayor and deputy mayor bear no relation to the current guys at Belfast City Hall who we both admire and respect very much."

And current Lord Mayor Tom Hartley has given the show his blessing by helping at the launch.

The play opens with a song called Here's Me, Wha? and continues in a similarly irreverent, hi-octane style.

"It has a slightly romantic view of Belfast," Kerry said, "it's remarkable to see how much pride the young people take in the city, and they think of City Hall as their own".

The show takes its stylistic inspiration from 1980s films such as Ghostbusters and Back to the Future.

Despite being more than two decades old, these films still have a significant resonance with today's teenagers, Kerry explained.

"The show is like a movie on stage - the medium that young people know best is film and that's their artistic shorthand when it comes to talking a bout ideas and situations that they like."

It was from brainstorming sessions that the ideas for the story and people in the play arose.

"The young people were very active in creating the characters and, once we had them, the comedy came easily," Kerry said.

The result is a work which brings together a range of influences and ideas, and gives an insight into how teenagers look what's happening around them.

"You can see how what is in the news has influenced their creativity, there are so many references to what's happening around the world," Kerry said.

And it has a sense of authenticity: "This is not your stage school group of young people – they're not professionally trained dancers or singers – but what they do is much more raw and exciting.

"The cast were very quick to say when the dialogue doesn't work of things didn't make sense.

"If they though a character wouldn't say something they let me know, and it exposed how long it is since I was cool," Kerry said.

This reality reflects in the end product.

"You'll be watching real young people on stage, rather than young people pretending to be someone else."

And many of those taking part in the show could well have a future in the theatre, according to Kerry."There are a lot of young people involved with this, both on stage and behind the scenes, who have a real shot at a future in the industry," he said.

Last Saturday runs at the Old Museum Arts Centre, Belfast, until Saturday Tickets are £5. for more information, or to book, contact the box office on 9023 3332 or log on to www.oldmuseumartscentre.org.