A company of Norwich students are taking audiences on an inter-galactic sports adventure with a new superhero-themed play.

About 17 City Academy pupils from years nine and ten are involved in the production So You Think You're A Superhero? which was performed on Wednesday at the Earlham Road school and will also be performed at Norwich Playhouse in April as part of the National Theatre's Connections 2012 festival.

It is the second show the young performers have put on as a company, having previously done a production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

The students chose the show themselves out of 10 plays commissioned for this year's Connections festival which aims to give young theatre companies the chance to perform brand new plays. The comedy tells the story of Teen TV going undercover to a prestigious UK sports academy where there are rumours of a new sporting superhero unlike any other in history – but what Teen TV discover could damage the academy's chances of winning the Olympics. Fourteen of the students are in the cast and three of the students have behind-the-scenes roles.

City Academy teacher Duncan Joseph described the show as a fast-paced slapstick comedy looking at the idea of displace-ment. He said: 'The students chose So You Think You're A Superhero? because it is a light-hearted comedy and they thought it would be different challenge after recently doing Romeo and Juliet.'

'They have been working really hard and I am really impressed with what they have done.'

'They are very much working as a theatre company. They chose the play, they have been involved in costume design, in sound and lighting too. It is all about working as a unit.'

A group of University of East Anglia students have also been working with the academy students, and at the school on Wednesday they also performed a superhero-themed show called Is it a bird? Is it a frame?

• Are you involved in a theatre project in Norwich? Call reporter Emma Knights on 01603 772428 or email emma.knights@archant.co.uk