After just over two months of rehearsals, over 20 students from Years 10 to 13 presented the electrifying “Return to the Forbidden Planet”. This musical sees William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” meet 1960s sci-fi – a tale of love, betrayal and scientific progress, set against the backdrop of a spaceship full of scientists who just cannot stop almost dying.

With no less than five potentially catastrophic events for the spaceship, the tension is high for the entire runtime of the musical. After boarding the “Starship Albatross” on a routine survey flight, a meteor shower causes a crashlanding on a distant planet, where we meet the scientist Dr Prospero, his daughter, and their robot Ariel. After seeing the Doctor take a mysterious drug known as the “X-Factor”, said to enhance the body and mind, the ship is taken over by a horrific monster, threatening to destroy the ship and everyone on it.

As the play comes to a close, Prospero’s wife Gloria, who he had labelled as a villain, reveals that this monster which had threatened to destroy the entire ship, was actually created by Prospero’s mind using his X-Factor drug. Before we reach our happy ending, the audience watches in horror as Prospero sacrifices himself to his monster, to save the lives of his family, and the crew he hardly knew. And that’s just the main plot – I haven’t even mentioned the love triangle between the ship’s captain Tempest, Prospero’s daughter Miranda, and the ship’s cook – Cookie.

Set to a soundtrack of classic 50s and 60s numbers, including “Great Balls of Fire”, “Teenager in Love”, and “Born to be Wild”, this show was fascinating to watch and to perform in. Though all of the songs were incredible, and the cast doubly so, I have to say that, for me, none of them beat the moment near the end of the play, when the ghost of Dr Prospero emerges from the airlock to describe the creation of his monster in “The Monster Mash”.

Whether it was being almost killed by a space monster’s tentacle, or egging on a fight between Cookie and Ariel, or any other moment in this fantastic musical, every moment was a joy to take part in.

Barbara S, Year 11