Events Diary
2024
Our next productionDid you know?
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This was the our 45th production and the fifth time the Society had presented "Princess Ida" (or "Castle Adamant").
We were delighted to introduce both a new Producer (Barry Atkinson) and a new Musical Director (Gordon Clayton). We also said a fond farewell to our accompanist Alan Rothwell, who was leaving to pursue other musical interests.
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The dialogue is in blank verse as Gilbert based his libretto on his earlier play The Princess which, in turn, he described as "a perversion" of Tennyson's poem of the same name.
In the work Gilbert takes his opportunity to poke fun at the movement for women's education which had gained momentum in the 1870's with the founding of Girton and Newnham colleges at Cambridge and Somerville and Lady Margaret Hall at Oxford.
From a series of watercolours by W.Russell Flint:
"Watercolor"
Producer/Director : Barry Atkinson
Musical Director : Gordon Clayton
Cast
| KING HILDEBRAND : | Robert Thurman |
| HILARION : (His Son) | Jeremy Shoesmith |
| -- Hilarion's Friends -- | |
| CYRIL : | Ian Townend |
| FLORIAN : | Kevin Hardaker |
| KING GAMA : | Malcolm Parkinson |
| -- His Sons -- | |
| ARAC : | Chris Sowerby |
| GURON : | Paul Child |
| SCYNTHIUS : | David Atkinson |
| PRINCESS IDA (Gama's Daughter): | Carol Parkinson |
| LADY PSYCHE (Professor of Humanities): | Joan Baldwin |
| LADY BLANCHE (Professor of Abstract Science): | Pamela Brooke |
| MELISSA (Lady Blanche's Daughter): | Stephanie Roe |
| -- Girl Graduates -- | |
| SACHARISSA : | Alison Sowerby |
| CHLOE : | Debbie Stringer |
| ADA : | Janice Child |
Chorus of Soldiers, Courtiers, Girl Graduates, Daughters of the Plough:
Verity Bird, Dina Burdon, Judith Gill, Margaret Hanson, Karen Morton, Sue Ralph,Kathryn Thurman, Dorothy Whitworth
Ian Castle, David Hirst, Vernon Newman, Ian Stringer
