Ah, junior high. That barely pubescent period when we all drowned in social misery – grotesquely flailing our arms and nashing our brace-ed teeth – hopelessly succumbing to that ridiculously awkward ocean of pre-teen despair.

Ah, and how ripe it is for comedy. That’s the story from the Getalong Gang, one of Austin’s newest young performance collaboratives, as they present Talent Show 1989. Its part actual talent show and part love-story-ala-80s-movie, with multiple romances simultaneously budding, crashing and careening toward the inevitable happy ending.

It’s also freakin’ hysterical. This is due largely to the well-crafted script by Michael Federico. Exploiting the undying earnestness of junior high school students, he intertwines a number of plotlines capturing the characters at their most vulnerable. Whether he has them putting it all on the line to act out their “dramatic” thespian masterpiece – complete with incest, alcoholism, depression and suicide – or announcing their hidden, forbidden lust to the world through a piece of performance poetry, Federico captures just enough honesty in the insanity to have it all ring true. Oh god, we really were that lame.

Praise should also go to some talented comedians. While the entire cast made clever, committed character choices with great comic timing, standouts were Mark Pickell as Principal Rick Pearson, Kathryn West as the principal's alcoholic love interest, Linda Jean Devereaux, Aspen Taylor as Veronica, the ultimate thespian, and Michael Federico (a multi-talented dude, we dare say) as Dallas, Veronica’s male counterpart. We actually – astonishingly – believed in these over-the-top performances even while we laughed at them.

However, before we get carried away and you think we’ve gone soft, don’t go expecting glitz, glam, or highly polished professional theatre. In all its hilarity, the piece is certainly rough around the edges – as the staging, pacing and overall cohesiveness of the production felt more like sketch comedy than a full-scale, fully-rehearsed production. If we were to wager a guess, it’s probably because the company spent most of their rehearsal time creating material (jokes, off-hand plot points, etc.) instead of refining it.

But quibbles aside, in the end it seems that it was time well spent. The material, and the actors’ and dancers’ ownership of that material, made for a very engaging, thoroughly enjoyable night of performance. This collaborative style for creating theatre could easily have led to a train wreck – so, while she didn’t create the best looking performance ever, well done to director/choreographer Zenobia Taylor for presenting a focused, succinct production that engaged the audience from start to finish. Throw that in with Taylor’s inspired “drill team” style choreography, and you’ve got yourself a damn good time.

Talent Show runs Thursday, Friday and Saturday night in conjunction with Stephen Pruitt's Catastrophe Theory at the play! Theatre. More info on times, prices, and all that jazz at the play! Theatre website.