For its 52nd season Britain’s company of young theatrical talent presents an enticing programme of drama on provocative and topical subjects. The first two offerings at Soho Theatre - James Graham’s Tory Boyz and Jane Bodie’s Out of Me - radiate energy and promise. The writing itself breaks little new ground, but the productions are fresh and bubbling with the excitement generated by strong casts finding their feet and triumphantly staking out their stage territory.

Graham’s piece, directed by Guy Hargreaves, weaves a study of British attitudes to sexuality around the history of Edward Heath, the former Tory Prime Minister. In a parliamentary office, Sam - a diligent young researcher - fights for his position on the greasy political pole. His dedication is undoubted; but as a gay, working-class northerner, his face - his nasty toffee-nosed chief of staff Nicholas warns him - will never fit.

The analogies with Heath’s background and with unproven rumours of his homosexuality are underlined in flashbacks and in the ghostly appearance of the music-loving politician conducting the frenetic onstage activity with a baton.

Sam’s visits to a comprehensive school, where he encourages pupils to consider the role of government, point up youthful disillusionment with the political process as well as presenting a playground parallel to Westminster. The play ultimately presents a no more challenging proposition than Heath’s rather platitudinous assertion: “It’s not what you are, it’s what you do.” Tory Boyz is stuffed with well-observed characters and zingy comedy, and the lead performances - from Shaun Rivers as earnest, conflicted Sam, and Dan Ings as the vile Nicholas, an Alan B’stard in training - are priceless.

The action gets off to an orgasmic start in Bodie’s piece, Out of Me. Four sweaty acts of sexual congress occur simultaneously, four climaxes quickly followed by anticlimax. “It wasn’t even particularly memorable,” muses a young florist, after shagging her boss behind the shop on a heap of compost. Too late for regret, though. Before long all four are fretting, retching and pregnant.

Bodie’s writing is prone to whimsy and occasional glibness; a little grit would be welcome. But the actors in Juliet Knight’s production have huge charm, the musical accompaniment by a quartet adds an affecting lyricism and the National Youth Theatre demonstrates once again its importance not only as a launchpad for careers, but as a conduit between young people and pertinent issues.

Box office: 020-7478 0100. Tory Boyz to September 13; Out of Me to September 9

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