Year 13 Drama and Theatre Studies students at The Boswells School, Chelmsford, have performed their final exam piece to a public audience.

The students, divided into two groups, devised their own pieces of theatre from one piece of stimulus given to them last September.

One piece was based on the real-life story of Natascha Kampusch and was intended to educate the audience in the area of Stockholm syndrome, a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and sympathy and have positive feelings toward their captors, sometimes to the point of defending and identifying with the captors.

The second piece was based on the events of 9/11 in New York but focused on ‘what if’ someone was in a different place at a certain time or made a different choice about something - how would their lives be different?

It focused on the ‘what if’ of each character as well as the themes of survivors’ guilt and racism, towards Muslims, after the event.

Laura Willcox, the school’s Head of Drama and Assistant Head of Expressive and Performing Arts, said: “Both pieces were well thought out and featured a range of drama skills developed over the students’ two-year course, as well as varied and well executed characters.”

“It was an enjoyable evening featuring some professional theatre which was supported by an audience of some 35 people and I am very proud of what they have achieved and how much they have progressed over the two years that I have taught them.”