HUDDERSFIELD University drama students have featured in a hit production that has been named Critic’s Choice by The Guardian newspaper.

Three students joined the university’s critically-acclaimed resident theatre company, Slung Low, to perform their sell-out dance and video production, They Only Come At Night.

The students, Sophie Sherwell, Keilidh Whyte and Greg Hale, were on work placements with the show, which sold out two days before it opened at Bradford’s Stir Festival.

It was named Critic’s Choice in the Guardian and received rave reviews from regional and national papers and magazines. It was also featured on radio and television.

Sophie and Keilidh were on technical work placements while Greg was on a performance placement.

One of the university’s technical staff, David Wainwright, was also senior production manager for the show, which is set in a car park and features a haunting, high-energy combination of film projection, story telling, soundscape and dance.

Alan Lane, artistic director of Slung Low, said: “They Only Come At Night was the hit of the Stir Festival and another considerably successful collaboration between the university and Slung Low.

“Without their support the production could never have achieved all those things. It is yet another feather in our collective cap.”

He said the students had all played a major part in the project and he praised Mr Wainwright, declaring him “one of the most accomplished and talented people” he had worked with.

“The four involved were central to the piece. Sophie and Keilidh worked long hours tirelessly, in a professional, determined and dedicated manner.

“I was incredibly impressed with how mature and thoughtfully they engaged with the project and how they undertook all tasks with such commitment.”

“Greg greatly impressed his choreographer with his determination. The company of professional dancers, whom Greg joined for the week, performed solidly for five hours a day, on concrete.

“That no member of the audience would ever have thought that one of those performers was a second- year performing arts students is a tribute to Greg’s commitment and skill.”

Slung Low have also been short-listed for one of the UK’s most prestigious theatre awards, the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award.

The award was founded to help the emerging artists in the field of experimental theatre.

Slung Low are shortlisted for the award for their multimedia show, Helium, which charts the journey of discovery a young girl takes into the past of her grandfather.

They are one of two finalists who will take part in a research and development week.

The winner’s show will run at The Barbican Pit in London in September next year.

Helium is the latest in a string of successful Slung Low productions, including Clickwind, which was Pick Of The Week in the Guardian for two weeks running this year.

That also featured students from the university’s drama division.

Before Clickwind, Slung Low created a performance called Underground with first-year drama students from the university. It took over the whole of the university’s Milton Hall building on Queensgate.

The theatre company will be premiering a new work in Milton Hall during the university’s induction week from September 24.