AN OXFORD University student has returned to Tavistock College to watch the school's sixth formers perform her own play.

The A-level performance studies students staged 'The Boy in the Attic' which former Tavistock College student Ella Evans wrote while studying English at the prestigious university.

Ella said: 'It's about young people's journey into adulthood and travel. I went travelling in India and it's a very spiritual place with a very different attitude to negativity and death and I wanted to explore how cultures react differently to it.

'I showed it to director Andi Higginson and applied for a youth opportunities grant so Tavistock College students could have the chance to perform it.

'Plymouth gets a lot of funding but Tavistock doesn't and there's a tendency to avoid the grit.'

Teacher Eva Pearson said it was good to see a gritty drama being staged in the small town of Tavistock.

She said: 'We're so proud of Ella. Lots of students go off to uni and achieve fantastic things and it's wonderful, but Ella has maintained a connection with Tavistock College which I think is quite precious. At some point I think we're going to be the school saying 'Ella Evans went here.'"

Ella said she felt she was able to get into drama at the college thanks to Mrs Pearson.

'I feel my love of drama was really fed,' she added.

'Last year I directed the Oxford Revue and I'm hoping to put on a play there this year. I've also been accepted onto the young writers programme at the Royal Court Theatre starting in January, which is extremely exciting.'

Under the banner 'The Company With No Name Yet', students Toby Jasper, Joe Thompson, Rosie Walsh, Tina Head, Katie Cox, Matt Mason, Jonathan Brindley, Nik Way, Alex Southern and Rob Hill took on Ella's hard-hitting play which culminates in the suicide of a central character.

Rosie said: 'It's not like a typical secondary school play; it's a lot more challenging and interesting.

'It's inspiring that Ella used to come here and has gone on to do amazing things.'

Katie said performing work by a former student showed it was possible to succeed in the performing arts.

'It inspires you to go on and still be creative when you leave school,' she added.

The play was staged across a whole classroom block starting in the Playstation Studio, with the actors and audience moving from room-to-room.