DRAMA students from a York secondary school dropped in on rehearsals at a city theatre.

Year 12 pupils from Joseph Rowntree School visited the De Grey Rooms at York Theatre Royal to get a look behind the scenes of the award-winning production Helver’s Night.

The play opens at the theatre on Thursday and will be a UK Premiere, running until November 8.

Director Hal Chambers and designer Zoe Squires won The Young Angels Award earlier this year. The awards scheme began in 2007 and allows the winners to create a full production of a newly translated text with funding from Company of Angels and support from the Culture Programme of the European Union and York Theatre Royal.

The play, by Polish writer Ingmar Vilqist, charts the relationship between Carla and her young charge, Helver. Helver is fascinated by fascism – not by the ideology, which he is unable to grasp, but by the bravura of the movement.

Head of drama and theatre at Joseph Rowntree School, Val Cox, said: “We have a long-standing relationship with the Theatre Royal. For the past five or six years we have liaised with the theatre and every year the Year 12s have been to see one of the productions which they then use for their written examination and they have to do a live production question and discuss the performance that they have been to see. The experience is wonderful for the students, nNot only does to help them understand the play and the context, but it gives them access to the professional environment of the theatre.”

The play is on at the Theatre Royal until Saturday, November 8 with tickets priced £12, £10 concessions under 6 priced £8. There is a free after show discussion with cast and director on, November 4.