The latest work from youth theatre company Shadow Syndicate – and the eighth in a row that they’ve brought to the Buxton Fringe – Creed is founded on an arresting and intriguing concept.  The year is 2026, and books now exist only in museums; a prediction which, in this age of the Internet and Kindles, might not seem far-fetched at all.  But, as we learn from an Orwellian opening dialogue, this isn’t merely the march of technology.  In the parallel world of the play, books – all books – are banned: a draconian official response to a single forbidden volume, a book known only as Creed.

We soon learn that Creed is a spiritual text, an obvious cipher for all the world’s religions rolled into one.  In a series of scenes from across the past century or so, we see how quotes from Creed have shaped human behaviour – sometimes as a force for good, but usually for ill.  Bringing the story back to our present day, an intense and genuinely disturbing war scene captures the ultimate irony: that adherence to the rules – the rules of Creed – is being used to justify ignoring the secular rule of law.  What happened after that it left to our imagining, but we know that somehow a backlash against Creed has spelled the rejection of all written work.

The problem with tackling such a broad historical sweep is that it’s difficult to say anything new, and at times – for example, during a conversation about the historical role of women – the script lacks a little depth and subtlety.  As young performers, Shadow Syndicate have contemporary perspectives that other playwrights don’t, so I’d have liked them to have looked more closely at how the concept of “Creed” might influence their own lives and views.  But there’s creativity in the way that familiar-seeming scenes are shaped by the mysterious Creed, and there are clever repeated themes as well – with passages from Creed acquiring new and darker meanings as the story goes on.

And while the script has its highs and lows, the performances are uniformly strong.  The best characterisation, understandably, comes from the older actors: Marie Walker carries the opening scene with confidence, and later achieves a nailed-on American accent which puts many professionals to shame.  Ethan Lewis proves versatile and convincing in a variety of roles, while Alissia Di Cosmo puts in a dynamic performance in one crux scene, descending from defiance into terror as a life-changing secret is revealed.  Irene Ebeye, meanwhile, is a quietly commanding presence, and can be deliciously evil when that’s what the script demands.

Production values are high as well, with well-rehearsed fluid scene changes, a smattering of effective ensemble pieces and some impressively detailed costumes.  The ending feels slightly tacked-on – a last-minute response to Brexit, maybe – and the intriguing founding concept, that books have been replaced by a kind of state-sanctioned Wikipedia, deserves to be more fully explored.  But it’s the quality of the acting that really matters here, so Shadow Syndicate deserve congratulations for another successful trip to Buxton.  I enjoyed Creed, and it’s exciting to imagine what these talented young performers will achieve in the years that lie ahead.