High school drama is an inherently risky venture. A stage play written for and with professional performers in mind is tailored for a set of brave students who perform it in front of their peers and family members.

In this context, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang might be more risky than most. First of all, the cast is required to speak, and sing, in an array of accents, including Vulgarian.

Secondly, the script is funny, which means lines need to be delivered with a sense of comedic timing (and in an accent). And finally, the car must fly, and swim, which is no small feat on a high school-sized stage, and budget.

This weekend, The Bermuda High School delivered on all three fronts with their engaging rendition of the classic story about the world’s original “smart” car.

Led by Emma O’Donnell (IB1) as Mr Potts, the eccentric inventor and widower, the play produced a series of convincing characters and stirring voices. In their roles as Potts’s children Jeremy and Jemima, Ava Satasi (Y7) and Sarae Botelho (Y7) danced and sang with a confidence and polish beyond their years, while Zoe O’Conner (Y11) once again showed off the range of her voice and charm of her expressions as Mr Potts’s love interest, Truly Scrumptious.

The plot sees the down-on-his-luck Potts desperate to sell one of his many inventions, which include an instant breakfast maker and an automatic haircutting machine, so that Jeremy and Jemima don’t have to watch their beloved Chitty hauled off to the scrap heap.

Like any parent, Potts cannot bear to see his children disappointed so when he does eventually sell his haircutter, to a farmer who want to pluck and cook his turkeys with it, the crisis seems to have been averted.

However, lurking on the sidelines are a dastardly duo of spies, played by Jade Weaver (IB2) and Nafiayah Rayner (Y11) who have come from “Vulgaria” to steal Chitty for their country’s rulers, the Baron and Baroness Bomburst, played by William Campbell (IB2) and Lillian Griffiths (IB1).

The “bad guys” often steal the show, and these four performers did exactly that. The Baron and Baroness, were a delightfully self-absorbed pair of evildoers, as mean and dismissive of each other as they are to the people they rule, yet still sharing an obvious mutual affection. Their agents, the spies, were equal parts devious and dopey, particularly when they kidnap the Grandpa Potts, played by Bianca Veloso (Y9) instead of his son.

This all leads the Potts family and Lady Scrumptious on a cross-continental adventure to rescue Grandpa and subsequently, with the help of the resident Toymaker, played Zoe Olesak (IB1), to save all the children of Vulgaria from the crypts beneath the castle.

Predictably the loudest applause was saved for Chitty’s ascent to the sky. Heaved up by some hidden hydraulics, Chitty spread his wings just in time to save his passengers from a trip to the bottom of a cliff. He then repeated the feat to bring the family safely home at the end of the story.

The BHS show was also carried along by delightful dance sequences that were tightly choreographed, and performed, across the relatively small stage. Set changes were numerous and smoothly coordinated and, as Chitty is a musical, the curtain call fittingly included a bow for the back stage orchestra that provided a lively soundtrack throughout. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is, at its core, a story about the spirit of innovation and the bond of family. The production team surely needed that innovative spirit to lift their car in the air, but ultimately it was the players themselves who delivered a polished, and funny, performance that gave a lift to the audience as well.

Congratulations to all cast and crew and to producers Jane Hammond Thorpe and Frances Cook, assistant director Melissa Brough, musical director Kate Ross, assistant musical director Dave Pitman and choreographer Debbie Mello.