WE all know that medical students are accustomed to pacing the hospital corridors late at night, but it may come as a surprise to find many are equally adept at treading the boards.

This will be obvious in the latest edition of the ANU Med Revue, “Murder, She Prescribed”, a title that almost eclipses a former favourite, “The Phantom of the Operating Theatre”.

It’s for a good cause. All proceeds of this, the tenth revue, go to Companion House, assisting survivors of torture and trauma. Last year’s show, “Into the Wards”, raised $9000.

Written in the style of film noir by a team of students, it’s based on a game of “Cluedo”. A struggling detective is approached by the femme fatale to investigate the death of her insufferable diabetic husband Nigel.

For fourth and final-year ANU med student Nicole Casalis, the combination of theatrical and medical talent is nothing new. Graduating from a musical theatre diploma course at NIDA in 2008, she took out a psychology degree at Sydney University and then in a Damascus Road moment, realised she wanted to be a doctor.

She’s not the only talented one. There are seven main leads this year, she explains, including people from every year group. “It always amazes me the extra talents that come out of the woodwork beyond the standard nerdy med student,” she adds.

Casalis is a member of the 10-strong scriptwriting committee. Scriptwriting committee? Does that mean the script will be like a camel? Certainly not, she says, explaining the methodology where the team gets together, agrees on a plot, breaks it down into scenes, all the while maintaining consistency in character.

For the ANU Med Revue, unlike most, normally has a single story, not just a string of skits. All this fastidiousness nearly ruined their summer holidays (Casalis was in Cape Town) when the writers were enjoying medical electives and holidays across the globe. Luckily there was Skype.

The production is an ambitious affair with a full chorus and a snazzy 15-piece band, and will be the last hurrah for several of the fourth-year med students, who’ll be patrolling the wards before long. Along with Casalis, there’s Madeleine Howard, sharing the role of vocal director with her, Sam Moore as the detective and Luis Paxton, director of the band.

She gets to play a character, not the femme fatale but equally enjoyable, a nerdy lab scientist. For a singing/dancing/acting medico, that should be a piece of cake.

And whodunit? The surgeon with a scalpel or the junkie anaesthetist with an overdose? No spoilers, you’ll just have to be there to find out.

ANU Med Revue, ANU Arts Centre, May 5-7. Bookings to anumss.org/med-revue-2016