WORCESTER has a theatre once again, and it falls to one of the amateur companies who were around in the venue's early days to raise the curtain for the reopening.

The struggle for The Swan has been an ugly and bitter mess with plenty of innocent victims and for the best part of four months we had the shameful situation of a city without a theatre.

But the sunken Swan is afloat again thanks to Chris Jaeger and his team at Huntingdon Arts.

On Tuesday, April 29, the theatre doors will open to the public once again and Great Witley Operatic Society will take the stage.

When the company booked space for their show last year the cast never expected to be reopening the theatre.

They will be performing Gilbert & Sullivan's Pirates Of Penzance, an am dram favourite carried out countless times.

But director Eleanor Peberdy made the production much more like Gilbert & Sullivan's original than the traditional amateur production.

"I have gone right back to its origins and how Gilbert would have wanted it staged," she said.

"The pirates are usually performed as rough and ready, but on Gilbert's stage they were noble men who had gone wrong.

"The soprano part also tends to be wet and sickly and I've made more of her, especially in the duet between Mable and Fredrick when he says he is leaving her to go back to join the pirates.

"Their singing is fantastic. What I've tried to do is emphasise the acting side with them, and not just the principals but the entire cast."

Pirates is familiar ground for Mrs Peberdy having starred in the GWOS production in 1994 and directing it for Tenbury Operatic Company last year.

"The productions are very similar but different people always have different interpretations," said Mrs Peberdy.

But the busy thespian will not see the fruits of her labour on stage until the Saturday matinee because she is starring as Eliza Dolittle in Tenbury Operatic Society's production of My Fair Lady running at exactly the same time.

GWOS's cast of 35 will be backed by a full orchestra conducted by musical director Martin Wall, who has been with the society since 1974.

Leading soprano Patricia Head will be taking on the role of Mabel, with tenor Adrian Rogerson as Frederick and Janet Hay as Ruth.

Regular audiences can expect to see the familiar faces of Paul Thompson, Martin Jones and David Scott.

Pirates Of Penzance runs from Tuesday, April 29 to Saturday, May 3 at 7.30pm with a 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Tickets are £6 to £10 from 01905 611427.