Ruddigore

We welcome you to the little Cornish village of Rederring and to RUDDIGORE, a spooky blood and thunder Victorian melodrama telling the tale of a young man trapped by the curse of his ancestors. We meet a professional band of frustrated bridesmaids, a chorus of ghosts, curses and disguises, a good old-fashioned villain and of course our beautiful heroine!

We promise you love songs, nautical music, belly aching laughter, ghostly goings on, words sung so fast you won't think it humanly possible, delightfully funny dialogue and possibly the best madrigal in the G&S canon!

For centuries, the Murgatroyd family (the Baronets of Ruddigore) have been under a witch's curse – to commit a crime every day, or die in terrible agony!

In trying to escape his fate, Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd, (the rightful heir) has run away to the little Cornish village of Rederring disguised as Robin Oakapple, a poor farmer, leaving his brother Sir Despard to assume the title along with the dreaded curse. But on the very day that Robin is to marry the sweet Rose Maybud, his secret is revealed by his foster brother Richard Dauntless, resulting in the usually meek mannered and shy Robin having to reluctantly resume his rightful place as Sir Ruthven, the Bad Baronet of Ruddigore!

Confronted by the ghosts of his ancestors who step from their picture frames in the gallery of Ruddigore castle, can he find a way to save the day by satisfy their demands whilst continuing to live a blameless life with the girl he loves?

Come and watch the story unfold with all its ghostly goings on just as we approach Halloween!

As to be expected, and in the typical topsy-turvy style we all know and love, good and bad are reversed and not all is as it seems in the world of Gilbert and Sullivan and the witch's curse of RUDDIGORE!

We have some very exciting news for the society in that the famous actor Samuel West (from All Creatures Great and Small), has agreed to be our Honorary Patron!(Son of Prunella Scales and Timothy West).