Events Diary
2024
Our next productionDid You Know?
- Our 52nd production and the 5th time for "Yeomen of the Guard". We welcomed Graham Weston as our Producer/Director, this time without Michael Kirby, with whom Graham had co-directed "The Gondoliers" in 1998. Graham has subseqently directed a further 12 productions (to 2018) and hence become our most prolific Director.
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The "Yeomen of the Guard" (or The Merryman and His Maid) openened October 3rd, 1888, at the Savoy Theatre and ran for 423 performances. Many believe that the score is Sullivan's finest. Indeed, some enjoy Yeomen particularly because of its ever-changing emotional balance of joy and despair, love and sacrifice.
Critics considered the score to be Sullivan's finest, including its overture, which is in sonata form, rather than being written as a sequential pot-pourri of tunes from the opera, as in most of the other Gilbert and Sullivan overtures.
This was the first Savoy Opera to use Sullivan's larger orchestra, including a second bassoon and third trombone.
Producer/Director : Graham Weston
Musical Director : Keith Webster
Cast
| Sir Richard Cholmondeley: (Lieutenant of the Tower) | Keith Horner |
| Colonel Fairfax: (under sentence of death) | Ian Townend |
| Sergeant Meryll: (Yeomen of the Guard) | Lyndon Wilkinson |
| Leonard Meryll: (his son) | Jeremy Shoesmith |
| Jack Point: (a Strolling Jester) | Malcolm Parkinson |
| Wilfred Shadbolt: (Head Jailer) | Robert Thurman |
| First Citizen/The Headsman: | Ian Castle |
| Second Citizen : | Martin Ripley |
| First Yeoman : | Stephen Roe |
| Second Yeoman : | Paul Child |
| Elsie Maynard : (a Strolling Singer) | Carol Parkinson |
| Phoebe Meryll : (Sergeant Meryll's Daughter) | Stephanie Roe |
| Dame Carruthers : (Housekeeper to the Tower) | Pamela Thorne |
| Kate : (her Niece) | Karen Morton |
Chorus of Yeomen of the Guard, Gentlemen and Citizens:
Tracey Barker, John Berry, Chris Duce, Rachel George, Harold Greenwood, Lyndsey Hanson, Margaret Hanson, David Hirst, Samantha Jones, Gill Leverton, Sue Ralph, Lyndsay Ripley, Sally Roberts, Alison Sowerby, Chris Sowerby, Neil Stones, Debbie Stringer, Kathryn Thurman & Dorothy Whitworth.
