2007-03 (BC) The Pirates of Penzance

Stephen Andrews produces

It’s the debut for Angela Drake, who stays for 11 years, and Jules Birkby joins to do Graphic Design.  It’s the last appearances of Richard Foxton, after 39 years, and Diana Foxton after 26 years.  The deaths of Eugene Mullan, and of founder member Doug Barrott are noted in the programme.  We have a DVD, from David Laine’s original

This is the Diamond Jubilee production, the society being 60 years old (the 50th production was Ruddigore in 1996).  Although the first production (A Slave in Araby) was begun in 1939, it was interrupted by the war and not performed until March 1947.  Adrian Ollerearnshaw and Kathleen Pagdin were also in that original production! There was a double-page newspaper report of the event