A day of drama and an evening of sheer joy and entertainment – this year's Senior House Drama Competition challenged the students to create their productions based on the theme of classic fiction. They ably rose to the challenge and obviously enjoyed every minute of their own, and each other's performances.

In her introduction to the six forthcoming shows, Julie Bannister, Director of Drama, congratulated the students on the hard work, commitment and inventiveness they had all displayed whilst working up their pieces. She was looking forward to seeing the fruits of their labours and would not have been disappointed in what was produced.

Beevor's House got the show on the Yellow Brick Road with an hilarious interpretation of The Wizard of Oz. Toto and Dorothy collected up the brainless Scarecrow, the heartless Tin Man and the Lion with no courage and took them to meet the Wizard of ‘Rock' in the 3D Emerald City. They fought off the Wicked Witch and topped off their production with a fabulous victory dance.

Leeman's House drew from the lucky dip Around the World in 80 Days for their production, which involved some fantastic fight scenes, and excellent use of simple scenery. One large cardboard box was used imaginatively as a hiding place, a hot air balloon and a prison. The show was great fun and full of energy.

The girls in Paull's House produced their own, very original version of Little Women, or was it Little Britain? Yeah but, no but these Little Women were portrayed as rebels without a cause, which was very funny. The sisterly love was clearly demonstrated however when Jo agreed to go out to ‘work' in order to support the family. When poor Amy encountered bullying from Beevor's Bover Boys, the girls' Mum came into her own and sensitively allowed her to drop out of school. The inevitably sad ending with Beth's demise, reminded us of the original story and the whole production was neatly narrated throughout.

Oscar Wilde's short story The Canterville Ghost was McGill's chosen piece, which was seriously dramatic and dark, with refreshing touches of humour from the serving staff of the haunted house. This show completely changed the atmosphere in the Theatre and the whole cast were superb in their roles.

Kennedy's House continued the drama with an ambitious performance of Dickens' complicated novel A Tale of Two Cities. The actors playing Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton made clever use of costume to show their relationship with the same woman by swapping one distinctive red jacket between them. Luke Moss was brilliant as Darnay's wife, Lucie Manette, managing to portray a sensitive character and a good woman.

The final play was Gulliver's Travels, produced by Riding's House. Lilliput was replaced by Smurf Moor Heath and the little people were bright blue smurfs – very clever. They made topical use of digital jargon and created a show which in the words of the adjudicator, Tom Allen, was “funny, funny, funny” – not bad praise from a professional comedian.

In his summing up Tom Allen complimented everyone on a great celebration of dramatic art. He carefully critiqued each show, offering some helpful advice. He chose Ridings as the overall winner of Best Production, with McGill's 2^nd and Paull's in 3^rd place. Mcgill's Chris Hudson was awarded Best Director, Lydia Chapman (Paull's) was given 2^nd place and Ollie Gamp (Riding's) 3^rd. Awards for Best Performer went to Mark Roger (McGill's) 1^st, Christian Wells (Leeman's) 2^nd and Rianna McQueen (Paull's) 3^rd.

Congratulations to all involved in what was a superb display of creativity and talent.