That's the question the Damascus College Senior VCE Drama Ensemble will probe in a new play Seven Deadly Sins that the students have written themselves.

The performance is designed within the Unit 3 VCE study to assess year 12 students on their ability to create and work within an ensemble performance.

Each student has been responsible for the development of at least one substantial character with the task challenging them to master the skills needed to both create and perform their own work.

Damascus College performing arts coordinator Andrew Seeary said Seven Deadly Sins saw each sin "scramble to prove their worth" in a post-pandemic world of economic rationalism.

Each sin - sloth, greed, gluttony, lust, pride, wrath and envy - demonstrates and recreates key examples of how they have influenced great moments in literature, history, popular culture and how they have most recently appeared and impacted lives in lockdown.

The seven students began the process of creating their work in the final weeks of the 2021 school year and have researched, written and refined the show in the months since.

Students have created all facets of the 40 minute play, which blends comedy and drama in an eclectic theatrical style, and incorporates a soundtrack and creative use of lighting and projection.

"Like Lego you come in with a foundation block then build scene by scene by scene," Mr Seeary said.

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"They had coloured bits of paper all over the place containing the names of scenes then worked out what order will they present them in then refined and developed what turned in to the actual show."

Mr Seeary said the process taught more than just playwright, acting and production skills.

"The backbone of the entire task, all the details, the ensemble collaboration, that team work is at the heart of all industries. They will work with people and projects, they are going to have good and bad days, and at the end they've got to get to the final product so in that way there is so much going on on so many different levels."

Seven Deadly Sins is on May 18 to 20 at 8pm in the Valda Ward Auditorium at Damascus College. Entry via gold coin donation on the night.

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