TEENAGE boys from the Sir John Colfox School will bring to life the seven ages of man on Father's Day.

They are among 100 Dorset men and boys aged up to 70, who have been taking part in a groundbreaking arts and science project which culminates with a multi-media performance at Portland on Sunday.

Conceived by artist Mark Storor and Bridport-based producer Anna Ledgard BoyChild aims to give a unique insight into what it means to be male and how maleness is perceived in today's society.

It is the result of a year-long collaboration with students at Sir John Colfox School, Bridport Primary School, fathers-to-be through Dorset County Hospital, the HM Young Offender Institute on Portland, and working men's social clubs.

Composer Jules Maxwell, filmmaker Peter Snelling, photographer Andrew Whittuck and Lyme Regis master baker Aiden Chapman also contributed.

Year 12 students Mark Franklin, Rob Quincey, Lewis Aburrow and Daniel White have been taking part in workshops on Thursdays after school and will perform on the day with the help of some technical wizardry from Year 10 pupil Dan Jones.

Mrs Ledgard said: "It grew out of a project in 2004 called Visiting Time which we did at Dorset County Hospital about what it is like to live with Cystic Fibrosis. We worked with these students then in Year Nine and came back to ask if they wanted to take part in a bigger project."

Drama teacher Janice Wrigley said: "It is good for the students to work with professionals who think out of the box and to see how they pull performances together. It is very different from anything they would normally do in school."

Sunday's performance is being held in an abandoned building at Southwell Business Park.

Visitors will be met at the door by a dapper old gent in his 70s and then taken round a series of rooms containing installations representing different aspects of masculinity from birth to boyhood, through to puberty, manhood and old age.

Props include a number of baths, huge piles of potatoes, shaving foam, bread and pictures. In one of the rooms the boys have created a foetus in a womb using clingfilm and lighting.

Student Mark Franklin said: "It is like following life through the eyes of one boy, and how they are born right through to growing up. It has been an awesome experience for us.

"Even the craziest ideas have developed such as covering someone with shaving foam, or filling a room with potatoes."

Lewis Aburrow said: "It is very much interactive theatre and the audience has to be prepared to get involved."

Tickets for the event cost £7.50, £3.50 concessions and must be booked in advance by calling the box office at Bridport Arts Centre on (01308) 424204.

Entry is at timed interviews between 11am and 6pm and the project will last about 40 minutes.