Us by Newex Collective at The Street Theatre 2

"All actual life is encounter" - Martin Buber

Us, the debut production from new Canberra theatre company Newex Collective, takes its inspiration from this quotation by the Austrian-born philosopher, says artistic director Cara Irvine. A drama teacher, she started the company as a way of working with young people, especially those in or recently out of college, to give them an outlet outside Canberra drama schools and theatre productions where they could help devise their own work in a collaborative environment.

Irvine, 32, says, "We took the ideas of young people and what they wanted to create with them. We made reference towards the idea of existentialism and ways of dealing with the world as young people trying to make sense of that ... We wanted it to be accessible, not academic."

Us looks at four different types of relationships – familial, friendship, romantic and work – and how relationships create different kinds of experiences in people's lives – using different staging and storytelling techniques from multimedia to movement to music.

The characters range from philosophical artist Arthur (played by Sam Bruce) and his colleague, designer Trent, to mates Rowan (Jonah Lafferty), who wants to play football and Jake (Jack Larmour), who already does.

Actors Brendan Kelly, 24, and Lauren Towler Lovell, 18, appear in the segment about romance, playing Matt and Liz, and we follow their ups and down as what began as a fling turned into something more meaningful.

Towler Lovell says, "It's supposed to be light-hearted and comedic, exploring a sexual relationship."

The young couple start out quite awkwardly but get to know each other over time and gradually become a more committed couple.

Towler Lovell recently graduated from Canberra College. Before that, she was in Irvine's performing arts class at Alfred Deakin High School – "she got me into the performing arts" the young actress says of Irvine – and this is her first play outside school or college. "It's a challenging role."

Being a songwriter as well as an actor, Towler Lovell has done double duty for Us. As well as acting, she has written songs for the show – not for her own segment, but for some of the others.

For the segment in which Irvine plays an alcoholic single mother struggling to cope in her relationship with her teenage daughter Jane (played by Tarra Salter), which is done as a movement piece, Towler Lovell has written four songs to provide a soundtrack – Sober refers to the mother's addiction and Need This More Than You Know, Maestro and Fill Me Up refer to aspects of the pair's relationship.

Towler Lovell says she and Irvine discussed what was required for the songs before she wrote them. She performs them live, on some accompanying herself on guitar, on others being accompanied by another musician on piano, or sometimes both of them play.

Kelly wasn't a student of of Irvine's but was cast by her in one of his first shows, a Free-Rain production of David Williamson's play The Removalists. He says the lovers' segment is one that includes a multimedia element: the characters' thoughts are displayed on screens during the action, contrasting with their words and actions to often comic effect.

He's been a teacher at the Canberra Academy of Dramatic Art and part of the aim of having more experienced performers like him performing alongside young actors is to provide mentoring and networking opportunities. Irvine says Newex Collective isn't intended to compete with drama schools or other theatre companies but to co-exist with them, providing alternative creative and development possibilities.

"It's still in the development stages – I call this the pilot year," she says. "Caroline Stacey [artistic director at the Street Theatre] has been mentoring me. We want to fit in the existing industry without treading on anyone's toes – there's a place for what we're trying to do."

Newex Collective, she says, is not intended to be a training institute but a place for young people aged 16 to 20 who have a skill set – in drama, music, dance – to get opportunities to develop and perform new work.