“Imagine,” swooned Charlie Bucket and Grandpa Joe as they contemplated winning one of the prized golden tickets to pass through the gates of the Wonka chocolate factory.

From beginning to end, Kendal College Theatre Arts’ staging of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the New Musical. showed just what can be achieved when you let imagination loose. Everyone knows the Roald Dahl story don’t they? But staging it requires invention, ambition and some very creative minds.

From dozens of Oompa Loompas marching through the audience and massing on stage in flawless formation to shrinking Mike Teavee and blowing up Violet Beauregard into a blueberry, every challenge was met head-on.

I had heard the college’s annual end of year productions staged at Brewery Arts were good, but it’s when you forget that you’re watching mostly 16 to 18-year-olds that you realise just how good.

Joe Elliot as Willy Wonka (Image: Icarus Image Systems/Iam Coomer)

It may technically have been an amateur production but the standard of performance was anything but – these are young people right at the start of their professional careers in the arts and it is not surprising that the likes of Guildford School of Acting, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, East 15 and Italia Conti have scooped some of them up.

Singling out individuals therefore seems a little unjust since the entire cast maintained high energy levels throughout, with facial communication and movement never slipping.

Yet, director Hilary Pezet and her team clearly know their students well as demonstrated by superb casting.

Wide-eyed Martha Cudby was adorable as Charlie Bucket, full of wonderment and expression, a truly safe pair of hands for a central role. Her scenes with Amelia King who, with wisdom, humour and charm, more than proved her ability to play authentically a male pensioner (Grandpa Joe).

Martha Cudby as Charlie Bucket  (Image: Icarus Image Systems/Iam Coomer)

Joe Elliot as Willy Wonka looked comfortable and delivered his lines with mature comic timing to garner plenty of laughs.

Emily-Kate Unsworth beautifully balanced Mrs Bucket’s maternal love with her downtrodden struggle, while her voice shone in If Your Father Were Here, part of a moving scene in which she danced with the ghost of her husband.

Other standouts were Coco Cleary as Mrs Beauregarde for her unrelenting energy and movement skills and Natalie Pinder as the boozy, battered Mrs Teavee.

Beyond the performances, the star of the show was surely costume designer Kate Reid for the sheer quantity and quality of wardrobe the production demanded. Faced with modest budgets and conscious of environmental good practice, she is a master of finding the cheap and pre-loved from local charity shops and transforming them into incredible costumes.

Set design and construction was similarly sustainable. The tech team was led by Glen Hanmer and Iain Hunter who guided students, including production manager Lydia Milne and head of set design Chase Creegan.

Some of the Oompa LoompasSome of the Oompa Loompas (Image: Icarus Image Systems/Iam Coomer)

Head of digital media and effects was Lottie G Flatman and April Charnley was lighting programmer. Finnan Austin and Toby Willis were in charge of sound.

Director Hilary admitted it had been “a killer show” that she was determined to secure for the 55-strong cast. She revealed sitting in a staff meeting with her finger poised over her computer to grab the licence as soon as it was made available only later realising the enormity of staging the show.

“In every aspect it has been challenging from creating set, lighting and sound that transforms in a flash and is magical; we have had many sleepless nights,” she said.

Being the last show for the final year students there were tears at the end. On behalf of the cast, Joe reflected on two years of fun and learning with affection for college staff including Hilary, acting coach Lauren Davey, singing coach Emily Robinson, who worked with musical director Rob Rainford, and choreographers Emily Baxter and Kerry Howard, who had “taught us not just how to learn dance, but to love it”.

It was a joyous celebration and the students can look back on their college years knowing they went out on a high.