THIS year's Conway play earned much applause as pupils from Kelly College's second form took to the stage.

The pupils performed 'Alice's Mis-Adventures in Wonderland', a comedy fusion of Lewis Carroll's classic tale with Dr Who, punk rabbits and music from 'Les Miserables'.

Described by some audience members as the best they had seen in recent years, the play featured stand-out performances from Edward Jenks as the 'Mock Turtle' and Richard Bennett as 'Dr Who'. More traditional roles were excellently portrayed by Olivia Chamberlain as 'Alice', Piers Brown as the 'Caterpillar' and Virginia Howard as the maniacal 'Queen of Hearts.'

The play was written by head of performing arts, Jeremy Balfour; however, the performance was heavily reliant on the skills of the young Kelleians.

Pupils learned lines, songs and dance routines, as well as numerous backstage skills such as lighting and sound. This, in addition to the production of oversized props and sets, offered pupils opportunities to develop new skills.

Mr Balfour said:?'It seemed like chaos for the first 48 hours, but I began to see that the large group were more than capable of pulling it off.'

He added:?'When our shows are coming together, it's always amazing how many people come along to support, train and coach our actors and technicians. This year, our dancers were lucky enough to have a dance master class from pupil, Rebekah Hainsworth, who recently gained a place at Arts Educational School in London on their musical theatre course.'­