A NEW theatre at a high school has been christened with a performance of Dick Whittington and his Cat.

A NEW theatre at a high school has been christened with a performance of Dick Whittington and his Cat.

The brand new theatre at Kesgrave High School was opened at the start of the year, but the Christmas pantomime was the first full-length play to be performed in it.

A cast of 50, including three teachers, took to the stage in front of audiences of hundreds on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, with an extra matineé performance on Saturday.

Co-director Charlie West said: “I have loved every minute of it and the kids get so much out of it. It went fantastically and it was very well received, particularly by the young ones.

“We only started rehearsing a week after half term, so we had four weeks in total. We have done it very quickly, but it has gone really well.”

The performance of the well-known story featured some re-hashed and original scenes, but followed the same plot as the original tale.

The dame was played by business and communications teacher Stuart Tingey, while two other teachers were cast as villains.

The rest of the cast was made up of students from year eight to sixth form, and the play was directed by drama teachers Miss West and Stuart Race, with help from sixth form students.

Miss West said: “They love to help out, they really love their drama. Some of them are music students doing the sounds for us and others are just interested in getting involved in the technical side of things.”