AN all-female theatre company tackling teenage taboos features former East Cornwall student Larissa Pinkham.

After successfully gaining a place in the National Youth Theatre (NYT) last year, Larissa, 19, started a theatre company with fellow NYT members and they are taking their debut show A Womb of One’s Own on a national tour.

Larissa, a former Stoke Climsland Primary School and Callington Community College student, said she is immensely proud of the hard work all members of the theatre company Wonderbox have put in to the show.

The play follows university student Babygirl as she embarks upon a journey of self and sexual discovery, navigating her way through new-found independence and not-so-steamy sexual encounters only to board the emotional roller coaster that is an unwanted pregnancy.

Written by Claire Rammelkamp, also a founding member of Wonderbox, the play uses comedy to both draw the audience in to the mind of Babygirl as well as open up dialogues about abortion.

Larissa said: ‘To think that a year ago, none of us had even met each other and the idea to create a company was only thought of after seeing a show eight months ago. Now we have performances booked all over the UK and Ireland with a new, brilliant political show, all started with zero money.

‘I am so inspired by what getting on and doing it can really produce.’

Larissa’s obsession with theatre started during her performance of Children of Eden at Sterts Theatre age 11. She has since performed all over the South West in a variety of shows at venues including the Hall for Cornwall, The Poly Falmouth, The Barbican Theatre and Theatre Royal Plymouth. Larissa also enjoyed utilising the Cornish landscape and performing site-specific work at Watergate Bay, Trebah Gardens and Port Eliot Festival.

Larissa has also enjoyed performing at The Royal Opera House, and Riverside Television Studios London, volunteered backstage at the Royal Albert Hall, presented shows at the Theatre Royal Plymouth and she has also appeared in popular TV show Doc Martin.

After finishing her performing arts B-Tech at Plymouth City College, Larissa moved to London in May last year where she has since been taking classes and workshops at RADA, The Actors Centre and is currently studying a Meisner acting course.

When Larissa moved to London she had no jobs booked but after a meeting with the National Youth Theatre (NYT) she successfully received a place.

It was then that Larissa was part of a 30-strong team of women from 18 to 25 years old in the first all female group on the Epic Stages Course.

The course by the NYT is designed to equip the best young acting and production talent with the skills and knowledge they need to enter the industry.

Larissa said: ‘I thought an all female group would be a nightmare but it wasn’t — it was fantastic. They then said we should make a theatre company [Wonderbox] and I said I would love to be involved.’

While discussing the play, Larissa said: ‘At the same time of it being a hard subject, it is also hilarious and our reviews can justify this. It’s so important to get people talking about these things. One in three women have an abortion and if so many women have abortions, why is it something that is not talked about?’

• The group is currently in discussion with the Barbican Theatre in Plymouth — watch this space!