Task-based language learning involves the use of authentic tasks with a coherent process and concrete product as a means of planning, delivering and assessing a curriculum. In this article, we draw on our recent use of the descriptive apparatus of the "Common European Framework of Reference" (CEFR) to define and specify a dramatic task for university language learners in an "English for Academic Purposes" (EAP) programme at C1 proficiency level. We outline the design and implementation of a task framework, and evaluate its success by drawing on student feedback. Overall, students found the drama task to be both enriching and challenging. Whilst negotiating the demands of group work was difficult for some learners, students agreed that the task led to increased confidence in spoken production and interaction. We explore how the task encouraged them to work on spontaneity in their utterances whilst monitoring for accuracy, and conclude that the drama task under scrutiny seems to create a successful communicative framework within which we observed language learners becoming language users.