Swaffham Bulbeck Summer Theatre is set to perform the Gilbert and Sullivan classic The Gondoliers.

The production, taking place at Downing Farm, in Station Road, will run from Wednesday, June 10, through to Saturday, June 13, with performances at 7.30pm every evening and matinee at 2.30pm on Saturday.

Swaffham Bulbeck Summer Theatre was formed in 1982 and stages a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta every June, this year being the 33rd production.

The entire Gilbert and Sullivan repertoire has been covered and ‘The Gondoliers’ has been staged twice previously by the group, in 1992 and 2004.

Summer Theatre productions take place in an agricultural barn, which is transformed into a magical theatre with a permanent stage and even a carpeted floor.

Together, the cast, orchestra and backstage crew comprise about 60 people, often including teenagers enjoying their first experience of performing.

The Gondoliers is one of the last hugely successful comic operas that Gilbert and Sullivan wrote.

The story of the opera concerns the young bride of the heir to the throne of the fictional kingdom of Barataria who arrives in Venice to join her husband. It turns out, however, that he cannot be identified, since he was entrusted to the care of a drunken gondolier who mixed up the prince with his own son.

To complicate matters, the King of Barataria has just been killed. The two young gondoliers must now jointly rule the kingdom until the nurse of the prince can be brought in to determine which of them is the rightful king.

You can contact Caille for tickets by e-mail on sbst.tickets@gmail.comor by calling 07541 554845.