Gilbert and Sullivan at the Barn Theatre in Cirencester (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Gilbert and Sullivan at the Barn Theatre in Cirencester

YOU'LL see some familiar faces and also some new ones in Cirencester Operatic Society's latest production, Patience, by WS Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan, which takes place at the Barn Theatre, Beeches Road, Cirencester from October 10-23.

Patience was first produced in April 1881 at the Opera Comique and is an exaggerated burlesque on the then very topical aesthetic movement. This cult probably began as a reaction to strict Victorianism and Gilbert's irony is directed against those who carried the fashion to extreme.

The opera is about a 'fleshly poet' and an 'idyllic poet' who are rivals for the affections of the milkmaid Patience. The plot also involves a train of rapturous maidens and their former flames, a colonel, a duke, a major and a regiment of officers of the Dragoon Guards.

Directed by Jan Honeywill and Brian Forster, this comical opera has some of the best music Sullivan ever wrote and the work will live as a perfect travesty of the pre-Raphaelite movement.

Tickets from Cirencester TIC on 01285 654180.