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Young at heart is a good way to describe most of Jonathan Dunski's theater career.

He portrayed the Cat in the Hat in a Musical Theater Southwest show and was Snoopy in an Adobe Theater production of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown."

As a theater teacher at Rio Rancho High School, Dunski directed the musical "Footloose."

When he was in charge of the Albuquerque Little Theater's family series, he helmed "101 Dalmatians" and "Stuart Little," a stage version of E.B. White's children's book about a mouse hero.

And then there was "There's a Boy in the Girls Bathroom," a comedy he directed for Albuquerque Children's Theater.

In his latest effort, Dunski, 37, reinforces his devotion to youth theater and education but with a production that is a decided departure from the lighthearted fare with which he is usually associated.

He's directing Nigel Williams' stage version of William Golding's grim 1954 novel "Lord of the Flies," the story of English schoolboys who revert to savagery and a struggle for power when they are stranded on a deserted island.

"It's edgy and brilliant," Dunski said during a phone interview this week. "As complex a story as it is, I think it plays on many levels.

"Younger kids will find in it dynamics similar to riding on the school bus and navigating the school lunch line. On a more serious level, you can see connections to the gang culture of today."

Dunski said the play also is a cautionary tale for adults.

"Older people will see the consequences of not parenting, of allowing children to follow their own devices, of allowing the beast to manifest" he said. "Kids are mean if you allow them to be mean."

In Golding's novel, the young boys fear what they believe to be a beast in a jungle. But the beast is really their own malevolent natures pushing to the surface.

Dunski was drawn to read the novel after seeing a movie version.

"I think the grotesque nature (of the novel) really had an impact on me, the fact that boys as young as they were, some whose voices had not changed, could accomplish murder," he said. "In the book, Golding is graphic about the deaths. He really nailed it."

Because of its violent nature and some candid language, Dunski fears parents might not want to bring their kids to see the play. But he hopes they do.

"Kids in fifth and sixth grade are already exposed to these kinds of behavior in school," he said. "Watching the play together gives parents and kids a chance to delve into these issues as much as they want."

Dunski's production at the North Fourth Theater is in three acts but includes only one intermission. Running time is about two hours.

The cast includes one adult in a brief role and 11 boys ranging in age from 10 to 13.

Dunski said the play is technically challenging for his young actors.

"There's stage combat and the British dialect," he said. "But they also have to go to great emotional depths to become savages or victims of savages."

As director Dunski's biggest challenge might be to curb the beast within the boys.

"When they are off stage, they have to support each other with civility and respect, to create an ensemble attitude," he said. "They have to be able to say, 'When I'm on stage, I'm this animal. But when I'm off stage, here is the discipline and I have to abide by it.' "