A group of 15 drama students from Truro School will be performing at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival in a production called Academy of Risk.

The production, written by Cube Essential Theatre’s Benjamin Symes and co-directed with Truro School’s director of drama, Johanna Egar, will premiere at the SpaceTriplex in Edinburgh on August 24 with daily performances running until August 29.

Academy of Risk, commissioned exclusively for the Fringe, uses creative music, imaginative staging and a brilliant young cast in a plot that is set to be highly unpredictable.

When an unusual book is discovered in the library of an old house by the sea, the new initiates of The Academy are inspired to dare each other into doing increasingly dangerous activities, until eventually one of the new recruits makes a tragic error.

A game pushed too far and friendships tested to extremes, Academy of Risk demonstrates what happens when the pressure takes its toll.

The seeds to the Edinburgh Fringe production were planted in August 2014 when a group of keen young actors spent a week work-shopping ideas with Benjamin Symes.

Over the course of the year Benjamin, who has been commissioned by Truro School to create an original theatre piece, has met up with the students twice a month to develop the play and to enhance the ever-evolving script.

Ms Egar said: “We are very fortunate here at Truro School to have our own theatre, technical and administrative support, and a drama company in residence. Taking all of these factors into account, it made perfect sense to take our drama skills to the next level and showcase our work in Edinburgh.”

With just a few weeks to go until the curtain is raised, Truro School’s drama students will now get a real flavour of what it is like to be a professional actor with a rigorous rehearsal schedule ahead.

From 39 hours of rehearsals a week at the start of August to 57 hours during the final week, the students are set to be fully prepared as they head north to Edinburgh.

Ms Egar added: “Edinburgh Fringe is the largest festival of its type in the world. Over the course of August our students will not only be exposed to the reality of living and working as professional actors, they will also have the opportunity to see a wide range of performances and immerse themselves in a vibrant, creative and exciting environment, which, in turn, will fuel their own creativity, knowledge and experience.

“It has been a complete privilege watching these young actors develop their skills, to see them learning to trust and respect one another's individual and diverse gifts, and to see everyone engaging in such a hugely exciting production.”

Benjamin said: “The students are absolutely fantastic and so talented. It’s been both a privilege and a challenge to write a play that attends to both the actors' ideas and their casting. I’m proud that we have a story that we can all feel passionately about, particularly in Britain today where the constant striving after ‘success’ might endanger the innate creativity our young people possess. We’ve got some hard work to do now to realise this for the stage but I think the show has huge potential to be exciting, fun and beautiful.”

For those who are unable to make the long journey to Edinburgh, the show will be performed at Truro School’s Burrell Theatre on September 16.