With New Zealand playwright Ken Duncum's Cherish, playing at the Third Space through May 11, Northern Light Theatre continues to pursue its policy of producing alternative theatre.

And director Trevor Schmidt again demonstrates how much he is at home out there on the edge.

Cherish gives us two couples - one gay and the other lesbian. The immature, but charmingly quixotic Tom (Richard Meen) has fathered two children - one for Maeve (Sue Huff) and another with Jess (Nadine Chu). But no one in the cosy foursome, which includes William (Brad Loucks) a middle-aged lawyer, could foresee what happens when Jess becomes pregnant by Tom again.

The play begins a bit stiffly as the four seem to be acting out Duncum's preset aim to investigate the "whose child is it anyway" syndrome. But it soon moves beyond the more simple issues of sexual orientation to probe universal themes of family and self.

By the second act you have emotionally invested in the lives of the four and the climax is a wrenching experience.