One of Blackburn’s longest established community groups is presenting their spring production this week at the Empire Theatre starting this week.
‘The G&S’ as they’re affectionately known in Blackburn theatre circles celebrated their fiftieth anniversary last year with ‘The Mikado’. This week’s production of ‘The Sorcerer’ may be a lesser known piece but offers the same lavish scenery and technicolour costuming, full orchestra, robust choral harmonies and a traditional level of parody, wit and repartee associated with the genre.
Chairman, Michael Berry said, ‘It’s amazing how the works of Gilbert and Sullivan continue to delight audiences over a century after they were penned. ‘The Sorcerer’ was considered such as success in its day that the duo were encouraged to go on and write their next opera, ‘HMS Pinafore’.
Blackburn Drama Club is the other resident community theatre group at the theatre at Ewood from where they produce an annual programme of four plays, one per season. Blackburn Drama Club has an even longer pedigree, stretching back over 70 years. The March offering is ‘The Humble Boy’ by Charlotte Jones directed by Martin Pugh. The plot centres on Felix Humble who returns to his family home following the death of his father to find his mother has thrown all his father’s belongings away, including his beloved bees, and is already planning to marry someone else. As dysfunctional family issues are brought to the fore, Felix finds solace in the garden that his father loved and confides in the gardener, who everyone else ignores.
‘The Sorcerer’, Blackburn Gilbert & Sullivan Society, Tuesday 24 – Saturday 28 February 2015 at 7.30pm Tickets, £12 & £10