Here we go again with a brand new adaptation of "Ruddigore"! Like our previous productions it's very much "the same but different". Gone is the cod-Victorian melodrama that received such an awful reception on its opening night, but those who know the original will readily recognise it; those who don't, will enjoy a tuneful, light-hearted and very funny piece of entertainment.

The music of course is all pure Sullivan and the story follows Gilbert's original, complete with Cornish locations and ghostly manifestations but we have brought the story bang up to date.

SO WHAT'S IT ABOUT?

The innocent Rose Maybud is now Rose Maybe, a much-married actress of dubious reputation whose fading film career has been given the chance of a revival by her casting as the virtuous wife of John Wesley - a juddering piece of casting against type that is being promoted by her PR consultant, Hannah Barbara, a formidible lady and hostile to men.

The third female principal is Mad Margaret, barmaid at the local hotel, "The Witch's Curse" (setting for ACT 1), who herself is much confused due to her unrequited love.

The Men's Chorus are Sir Roderick's criminal gang who meet once a year and put the fear of death into whoever is the present holder of the Baronetcy, whilst the Ladies Chorus is split between staff from the local building society who, in their spare time, form the choir of the local parish church and journalists from "HIYA! Magazine" who have been invited by Hannah to Rederring to promote the "new" Rose Maybe.

Castle Ruddigore is still home to the bad baronets, whose present incumbent is Sir Desperate Murgatroyd who inherited the title on the apparent death of his uncle Sir Roderick and the apparent death soon afterwards of his elder brother, Sir Driven Murgatroyd. As you will have gathered from the number of "apparentlys" things are not what they seem. Sir Driven is not in fact dead but masquerading as Robin Oakapple, virtuous manager of the local building society. Sir Roderick is not dead either but fled the country and is now the head of a multi-national criminal organisation that meets once a year at the ancestral home. The truth about the non-deaths is known to only two people, Adam Stoutheart, the not-so-genial host of "The Witch's Curse" and Richard Thoughtless, a feckless charmer and Sir Roderick's illegitimate son.

Rose Maybe consults her book

Richard Thoughtless introduces himself to the Building Society Girls

Are we right to doing this to such a hallowed institution as Gilbert and Sullivan?We wouldn't be doing it if we didn't think so. We adore the operas but realised that, presented in the same way for over a century, they held limited appeal to modern audiences or company members. We had to inject something new. So far we have been successful and it must say something about our approach when over a third of our large cast is under 18 years of age and love every minute of it.

In his excellent article in The Daily Telegraph, Rupert Christiansen wrote about the value of G&S and speculated on what would give its reputation the boost it needs and deserves. He believes that G&S should be made part of the secondary-school musical curriculum; there should be more traditional productions by companies such as the excellent Carl Rosa Opera Company who stage the operas in their original form and that there should also be …"more productions that are right-off-the-wall and wackier than ENO's Mikado or Joseph Papp's rocked-up Pirates of Penzance." With comments like that, we think we're going the right way to saving these wonderful works for future generations.