Johannesburg — THERE is something infinitely sad about OUT OF BOUNDS (Liberty Life Theatre on the Square), something serious that lingers after the last line of Rajesh Gopie's dramatic monologue.

The playwright and actor explores the delicate balance between youth and adulthood through the eyes of Lal, growing up in Inanda, north of Durban. He exactly captures the way in which adolescents can observe so sharply and critically and yet want to escape what they see.

On the surface, Lal's story is a lightweight caper; but froth and charm are very much a part of Gopie's acting armoury. There is steel behind the facade. As he twists and turns, growls and shouts like the men in his extended family, or spits sarcasm in the voices of the women in the house, a sharp and unsettling meditation on the subject of failed relationships emerges. Rage, ambition, frustration and panic are exposed with relentless energy and exuberance as close relatives behave badly to one another.

Underlying every aspect of this young man's story is the awareness of the gap between what human nature is capable of aspiring towards and to what depths it often allows itself to sink. Lal's aspirations of an ideal life are shaped by the grandiose flaunting of material wealth and the sexual appetite of his flamboyant Uncle Raj. Beside this entrepreneurial dynamo, his own father's tiny gestures of affection go unnoticed.

Gopie is in turn stern and tough, then wreathed in genial smiles, or spurned and sulky. Always there is a loveable edginess in his performance as he reveals how difficult it is to live in cramped and claustrophobic accommodation. The loud, unsubtle and even coarse behaviour of the men is set against the gentleness of Lal's gay cousin and the jaunty insights of his majie (grandmother). Even grim contemporary realities - Indian homes set on fire by black looters - give an extra layer of meaning to the glorious, unstoppable characters he creates.

During Lal's teenage years, he consciously distances himself from his artisan father and chain-smoking mother. It is when the transatlantic call, telling of death, comes to his new US apartment, he realises what being grounded really means.

The appeal of Out of Bounds lies in what is not revealed. Gopie pushes the bounds of comprehension to show how the family develops the mind and releases the spirit of its children in lessons that usually take a while to learn.

The production runs until March 5. Book at Computicket.