2017 Show
Our next show
Our next production will be Ruddigore, at the Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline for its usual Wednesday to Saturday run with a Saturday matinée, on 22nd–25th February 2017.
Music rehearsals for the show started on 24th August, and we’ve been working away since, with floor rehearsals starting in October. It’s looking great, and everyone is enjoying it, even if some of the movement is challenging. But if you want to know why some of the ladies are wearing tee-shirts with the legend ‘Jet’, whilst others are ‘Sharks’, then you’ll just have to buy a ticket!
The flier linked to the image will give you details and prices, an order form, and a seating plan. You can order tickets from any member, from our ticket hot-line (07703 483083), or from the Carnegie Hall Box Office (01383 602302).
What it’s about
In the words of the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive:
Ruddigore, or The Witch’s Curse was the 10th collaboration between Gilbert and Sullivan. The “supernatural opera” opened on January 21, 1887 at the Savoy Theatre and ran for 288 performances. It was not revived until 1920 when it was substantially cut and provided with a new overture arranged by Geoffrey Toye.
The opera is a parody of the stock melodrama — the villain who carries off the maiden; the priggishly good-mannered poor-but-virtuous-heroine; the hero in disguise, and his faithful old retainer who dreams of their former glory days; the snake in the grass who claims to be following his heart; the wild, mad girl; the swagger of fire-eating patriotism; ghosts coming to life to enforce a curse; and so forth. But as one critic noted, Gilbert turns the moral absolutes of melodrama upside down: good becomes bad, bad becomes good, and heroes take the easy way out.
The Baronets of Ruddigore are cursed. Anyone who succeeds to the title has to commit a crime every day — or perish in inconceivable agony.
Robin Oakapple, a young farmer loves Rose Maybud, but both are too shy to tell the other. But Robin has a secret. He is really Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd, the rightful Baronet of Ruddigore, in disguise. His younger brother, Despard, believing Ruthven to be dead, has assumed the title. Robin’s foster brother, Richard, seeking Rose for himself, tells Despard of Robin’s deception, and Robin is forced to accept his true position, losing Rose to Richard in the process.
Now the Baronet of Ruddigore, Robin is confronted by the ghosts of his ancestors who step from their picture frames in the gallery of Ruddigore Castle to confront him for failing to conscientiously commit his daily crime. Robin eventually finds a way of satisfying his ancestors demands whilst continuing to live a blameless life …
You’ll find a fuller version of the story at the Synopsis link.
