THE PROM. What does it mean? It’s a rites of passage adventure, a celebration of moving from one stage of your life to the next.

It’s a time for getting drunk, perhaps having unplanned sex - and waking up to face the rest of your life.

But sometimes prom nights are not the stuff of American rom-coms. Sometimes things happen on the night you’d rather not remember.

That’s the theme of Prom, a new play for Oran Mor by Oliver Emanuel, featuring Ryan Fletcher, Helen MacKay, Martin McBride and Nicola Roy,

It tells of four friends who reunite to remember when they were seventeen and beautiful. But as memories are recalled and secrets laid bare, a terrible truth is brought to life.

“The prom night is set now, in 2016,” says Nicola, who is appearing in her first OranMor play.

“But ten years later, in 2026, these four friends find themselves looking back on the events of that night.

“This very tight group of school friends called themselves ‘Level Ones’. What this means is they considered themselves in a caste above everyone else.

“But a new guy comes to the school who is almost on a level of his own, and he is so popular even the guys have a crush on him. And he is dragged in to the group.

“Yet, while the fab four plan to have this amazing night, take pills or whatever, this cool guy, who we don’t see, does something which turns the night on its head.”

The play flits back and forward in time to the prom night and to the reunion.

“These are people who have left school and gone on their own journey. And while they’ve moved apart, they have to face up to the events of the past.”

“But what the play highlights is while they are friends, they haven’t really remained in contact.

“The play makes you think about how lives can change, how people can change.

“When we’re in school, we’re in a cocoon where we feel really safe. It’s about going on to the real world where you have to begin again.”

Nicola’s own experience on leaving school highlights that sentiment in a very dramatic way.

She had thoughts of going on to university, in fact teachers pushed her in the direction of studying Medicine, but six months after leaving school Nicola’s mum passed away, suffering from an auto-immune illness.

“I felt so exposed,” she says, in soft voice. “My mum was everything to me. Suddenly, the carpet was drawn from underneath me and it really made me think about life.

“I think I’d lost my identity and needed a new one. Meantime, I’d been part of the Lyceum Youth Theatre and a tutor was pushing me towards acting.”

Nicola landed a part in a show in London, Eclipse, that went on to Sydney.

“It was the right thing at the right time. This experience changed me and I met people like Sir Ian McKellen who took a shine to me.

“Thankfully, this experience got me back on track and I went on to drama school.”

After drama college in London, Nicola stayed in the capital for two years.

“I’d planned to stay longer but all the work I was getting was back in Scotland.

“I thought I’d come back for six months to test the water and I stayed. It’s all gone so well. I’ve worked continuously.”

She has, in theatre with the likes of Educating Agnes, the Liz Lochhead play, and Futureproof, in which she played half of a pair of conjoined twins.

And she appeared in panto alongside the late, great Gerard Kelly in his last King’s panto. “He made me feel so safe,” she says.

Now, Nicola smiles as she realises she’s tracing back her own school departure again, thinking about what it means when young people are thrown out into the world.

“It’s a real challenge,” she says of Prom. “Especially given none of the characters in the play have names.

“The play was written as one bit monologue, the writer trying to create one voice, and the actors chose the lines they felt most connected to.”

Why didn’t the writer simply appropriate accordingly.

“You’d have to ask the writer that,” says Nicola, grinning.

Ah, the joys of acting. But then Nicola wouldn’t have it any other way. She laughs as she reveals she was an avid attention seeker right from the first second she was born in fact.

“I had such a loud cry I had to be separated from the rest of the babies,” she says, laughing.

“I guess that tells you everything.”

* Prom, Oran Mor, until Saturday.