The Year 12 and 13 Drama class began their journey at the end of Term 1, which focused on the impact of drink driving in society. Too Much Punch for Judy, written by Mark Wheeler used real life interviews to base his play on. Judy Poulten accidentally killed her sister Jo in a drink driving accident. Not learning from her mistakes, killed another innocent victim 10 years later again from drink driving.

One of the key characters, Officer Caten, who not only dealt with Judy after the accident, but also had a personal relationship with the family mentioned her struggle with the Character “ It was difficult to connect with the character as you had to keep up a professional facade of a police officer, as well as contain the personal grief for the death of Jo Poulton”.  Being based on a true story, the personal depth that the students had to delve into to gain an understanding of what the real characters were feeling and bring to the stage was a challenge, a challenge that they handled with maturity and grace.

A member of the cast commented on the feelings behind the scenes of opening night the “backstage you could see that everyone was nervous, you could feel the tension but somehow we made it through to the end of the show”. That opening night left many audience members shocked that this accident actually had occurred. There was the fear that the cast wouldn’t get the strong message across, but I feel the the cast did the show justice and used the play as an opportunity to educate our community.