Anyone who has followed the career of Wayne Tunks knows what a fantastic playwright he can be at times, but they would also be aware of his tendency to lose his way and produce a bad apple.

With Silvertop Ash, Tunks gets it so right, delivering a moving, tactful and fast-paced play that shows his maturity and growth as a writer and his obvious bright future.

Comparisons can easily be drawn to one of his earlier works, Go West, which was also a "coming out" play and one that was full of emotion. This time around, however, Tunks doesn't resort to cheap laughs and the story remains on track throughout, building in suspense and drama as it drives towards its sad and emotional conclusion.

Almost film-like in its structure, the play is essentially a series of flashbacks in which we follow the home life of Hamish (Ben Gerrard), a 17-year-old from Mittagong who is a little different to everyone else. He doesn't like sport like his father or brothers, has a desire to chase a film career and is struggling to deal with where his sexuality may be heading. Making the journey more difficult is Hamish's best friend Aaron (Samuel Faull), who reveals there's more than just friendship in his mind, and Josh (Nicholas Baldas), the school bully who believes he is better than everyone else, but is also harbouring a dark secret.

It is a heart warming, intense story and Tunks is in the right time of his career to tell it. The coming out scenes, the physical scenes and those scenes that need to be carefully handled are all presented with maturity and class, and where one could have easily turned to laugher or brushed over a certain situation, Tunks has opted to take it on with full force.

And then there's the cast - all brilliant as an ensemble, led admirably by Peter Flett as Hamish's father, Bill. Flett's is a comfortable, convincing performance and his dramatic scene with Hamish in the second act showed plenty of fire in the belly. Gerrard and Faull are both sensational, Gerrard playing the uncertain and shy Hamish with the grace and dignity that I am sure Tunks intended, and Faull a real treat as the confident and clingy Aaron. The rest of the cast are also solid - Janine Penfold is charming as Penny, Baldas shows great promise as Josh and Tunks, who plays the detective, serves a serious role well.

It is where this play could have failed but didn't that makes it such a success. The scene changes - and there are many - could have been clunky and uncoordinated, but instead they are smooth and succinct. Tunks could have taken his own character down a particular path, and threatened to do so at times, but he held back on cliche and it worked well, and most importantly cheap jokes were few and far between, the writer and director choosing to keep the dramatic tone throughout.

Plays like this have a habit of either trying too hard not trying hard enough, but Silvertop Ash finds that much-needed middle ground. This is the year's best play so far and will be hard to top.