Safe Space by Jamie Bogyo, directed by Roy Alexander Weise, Minerva Theatre, Chichester until Saturday, November 8.

Relationships, whether political or sexual, racial or just plain interpersonal, are an unending, unforgiving battleground in Jamie Bogyo’s slightly-slow-to-start but increasingly impressive debut play, a piece which uses humour brilliantly and a cappella even more so.

We are on campus at Yale nearly ten years ago at a time when there is huge pressure to change the name of a college named after a white supremacist.

Have we got the right to erase the history which made us who we are? Or can we rewrite our past on our way to a better future? It's the question which simmers in the background. But really it’s not much more than the pretext as five super bright young people, Isaiah, Connor, Annabelle, Omar and Stacy, clash repeatedly as they thrash out who they are, what they want, and just who they want to be with.

It’s all a battle but it’s rarely clear who is fighting whom as they spout their opinions, test their opinions and hesitatingly refashion them. And that’s the thrill of this play as our unfamous five walk on egg shells, torn between the fear of saying the wrong thing and the certainty that they will, political correctness ever ready to trip them up.

It is a minefield for everyone, and the play gives us beautifully all the certainties of youth plus all the uncertainties that lurk behind them. Bogyo captures the superbly squirming awkwardnesses; deceit and misdirected attractions add another layer to the complexities. Sometimes being older makes life so much simpler…

The piece starts stunningly with a piece of a capella – so stunningly that you wish there were more of it. But maybe Bogyo is right to use it so sparingly. It is wonderfully effective in the second half, its impact all the greater, all part of a much stronger final hour.

Bogyo himself is Connor, a beautiful performance (and what a voice), the dogmatic super opinionated one who comes unstuck. His best mate is Isaiah, terrific from Ernest Kingsley Jr (and again his voice is stunning), the guy who just wants a quiet time and to get on with it but who can’t help but get sucked into all the shenanigans. In the middle of it all is Céline Buckens’ Annabelle, just as mixed up, just as vulnerable. She squirms beautifully. Ivan Oyik adds another fine performance as Omar, another character treading the trickiest of lines. More ruthless, more focused is Bola Akeju’s Stacy, the one character who knows where she’s going.

You might well be left pondering what it all adds up to in the end, but the strong second half ensures a memorably enjoyable evening.