When you are submerged in a world of comic books and love, you can’t help but smile. The Astonishing Adventure of Awesome Girl and Radical Boy, a play put on by the students of Central Memorial High School, keeps you entertained through and through with humour, romance and real life.

The students have brought to life the ordeals of working at a job that isn’t what you want, but at the same time keeping dreams alive and real, through comic book characters.

The play, written by Calgary playwright Ethan Cole, ended its run Dec. 3. It is about a young man named Nick, played by Grade 10 student Devon Oakander, who gets a job at a comic book business with the dream of getting his comic book character Radical Boy published.

The play drifts between real life and the fantasy world of comic book characters. Nick meets Julia, played by Grade 12 student Emily Gore-Hickman, who is also interested in publishing her comic book character Awesome Girl. Nick is smitten with Julia when he first meets her, but Julia doesn't date people she works with, but as the play goes on, she falls more for Nick's personality and love of comic books. Nick and Julia eventually become partners in the world of fighting crime.

Audience member Stacy Preddy, a mother of one of the crewmembers, thoroughly enjoyed it. “I thought it was very entertaining and thought that they did a very good job.”

When asked what her favourite part was, Preddy had this to say: “It had to be when they all get together in the end, the irresistible love story. You got to love a happy ending.”

The Astonishing Adventures of Awesome Girl and Radical Boy was enjoyed not only by the audience members but also by the students in the play. Rehearsing all week since September all members of the cast and crew have worked hard.

The play ended its run Dec. 3, and the cast and crew loved the experience

Emily Gore-Hickman is not only in the performing and visual arts program at the high school, but she is also on the senior girl’s basketball team. Even though she had other options of plays she could do, The Astonishing Adventures of Awesome Girl and Radical Boy was what she really wanted to do.

“To be honest I really wanted to do it,” said Gore-Hickman. “It seemed like so much fun I wanted to be Awesome Girl so bad there is just so much character that you can portray.”

On playing the lead role Awesome Girl and Julia, Gore-Hickman said “I loved it, I can`t even explain, it was stressful switching from Julie to Awesome Girl. But at the same time Awesome Girl was so fun, you can be big with everything and tons of attitude and female power.”

Devon Oakander also enjoyed playing the lead role of Radical Boy and Nick. “It was very interesting and it was really, really fun to play. It was really energetic I had a great time.”

Oakander has always loved to be on the stage, he never really liked anything else. He said, “it would be fun for me.”

Both Gore-Hickman and Oakander both enjoyed working with the other cast members in the play. Oakander said, “I think it’s really cool because everyone else wants to be there, not like a junior high performance. So, it’s really neat that way.”

Gore-Hickman said, “I loved it, most of the cast was Grade 10 and I thought it was so interesting working with them, it was interesting to see how much I have grown up since then.”