Home at the National Theatre, by Nadia Fall, review The focus for teenagers at this time of year is all back-to-school gloom and the anxiety of exam results, but I caught a fantastic play in the National Theatre's temporary Shed space that put the difficulties of these years into stark relief. Home by Nadia Fall is about a hostel for homeless youngsters in inner-city London. They are on the streets thanks to a list of what sound like the problems of blighted Britain: family breakdown, gang violence and unplanned pregnancy. Fall based the play around verbatim transcripts she recorded in a real East London hostel. Verbatim plays, even more than promenade or site-specific theatre, seem to be all the rage these days, taking in everything from the Ipswich murders to the Iraq war and, given Fall's subject matter, I was expecting a rather heavy-going evening, confirmed when I saw the stark interior and set. But I couldn't have been more wrong. This was a play full of humour and fun and, most importantly, music. The transcripts were used to flesh out the quirky individuality of the youngsters and hostel workers. Each character would break into contemporary songs or raps, from Beyoncé to Plan B, that meant you not only heard what the hard facts of their life were but felt the aching, often romantic hope of their dreams and fantasies. The pièce de résistance was a phenomenal female beatboxer, Grace Savage, who could mimic everything from a newborn baby to a telephone ringing. There was a constant energy and entertainment to this play that the glitzier, hi-tech productions in bigger theatres" jukebox musicals don't even get near. Yes, there was a certainly a message in there about our perceptions of feckless teenagers and our shared, profound need for a home. Sometimes the pathos of their situations was over-egged although, given the current housing reforms and the effect they will have on young people, you could hardly blame the director for not sitting on the fence. None the less, this was theatre in its truest form: the intense, magical transportation to another world through words and music and movement. I heartily recommend it as a tonic to any back-to-school blues. Home" is at the National Theatre until September 7. Tickets: 020 7452 3000; nationaltheatre.org.uk