In a glowing review, screenwriter David Stevens — who saw an early staging of the play in Whangarei — described the murder scene as "shockingly shown".
"An extraordinary riot of blood, and the inclusion of this tale is itself a master-stroke, setting up the essential nihilism of the youth among which Albert Black has found himself."
Claudia Nixon, 17, who plays Juliet Hulme, didn't know much about the murder but became enthralled after getting the role.
"I can't really believe that it happened," she said. "I've mostly done musicals and stuff so this is very different and it's going to be a challenge. We've had to learn to scream like psychos and things like that, which has been pretty fun."
Devon Webb, 16, who plays Pauline Parker, said it's a challenge to perform as one of the country's most complex killers.
"I'm going to have to swing a brick at my 'mother' on stage."
Also featured is the March 1955 Milk Bar Murder, where 19-year-old Freddie Foster killed a young woman who spurned him in an Auckland milk bar. He, too, was hanged.
Playwright Peter Larsen said Albert Black is "just a ripping New Zealand story".
"All these elements conspire to really encapsulate the transformation not only in New Zealand society but globally. It was the rise of teenagers and the reactions against the freedom and expression that they wanted to have."
Peter Graham, a retired barrister who wrote the book So Brilliantly Clever on the Parker-Hulme murder, said the case endured in popular culture.
"People often suggest to me, 'why don't you write about such-and-such a case', but actually it's very, very hard to find another New Zealand murder that would be anything like as interesting."
The play, directed by Jarrod Martin, is based on the Redmer Yska book All Shook Up: the Flash Bodgie and the Rise of the New Zealand Teenager in the 1950s.
It will run from July 29 to August 2 at the Basement Theatre in Auckland.
