Trial by Jury, The Pirates of Penzance

A good evening’s entertainment from Walsall G & S Society.  The evening commenced with ‘Trial by Jury’ and Pamela Robinson’s production was set in 2013 being dressed accordingly. I enjoyed hearing Emma Jones singing as the Plaintiff.  From the Judge to the ‘nuisance man’ this was a fast moving piece with no time to let your mind wander.  I particularly enjoyed the two cleaning ladies. Even though there is no raised stage at this venue but thanks to a well-designed set the audience could see every bit of the action. We even had the chance to hear the Musical Director sing.

The second part of the evening was taken up with ‘The Pirates of Penzance’. Pam’s production had everything going for it including dedicated pirates.  For me personally, it made a nice change to see a young Frederic, played by Steve Parrish. Steve Groves as the Major General lead the company well with good support from Bryan Till as The Pirate King and Ann Simpson as Ruth. I really enjoyed hearing Karen Marie Lyon sing Mabel. A joy to listen to.  Again a wonderful set and some really nice costumes. 

These two productions were unusual as the orchestra was on the side of the stage area, but saying that they did really well and every word could be heard from on stage.

One thing that did stand out was that there was no duplicate casting in each production.

This was the society’s 50th anniversary production.  Congratulations to them and here’s to the next fifty.

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