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|
The Twenty
First Century
| Date |
Flyer |
Show |
Detail |
| 2010 |
 |
Middle
Earth Weekend 2010 |
Once
again Shire Productions will delve into Moseley Bog to re-imagine a
stories which influenced Tolkien's life. This time we are depicting
The Mariner. |
| 2010 |
 |
Sullithon
2010 |
Another
success for charity. Modeled on the previous1990 Sullithon, MOS were invited by the Lord Mayor to
stage and perform another 22 hour
thirteen operetta event covering the life and work of Gilbert &
Sullivan. |
| 2009 |
 |
Middle
Earth Weekend 2009 |
Called
the 'Middle Earth Weekend' once again. Shire Productions, performed
'Beowulf in the Bog' following the success of the similar show the
year before. |
| 2008 |
 |
Beowulf |
At Birmingham’s Middle Earth weekend at Sarehole Mill, Hall Green in 2008, Shire Productions, performed extracts from the heroic poem Beowulf, dramatised by Vivienne
Wilkes. |
| 2008 |
 |
Ali
Baba and the Forty Thieves |
‘Let’s do a Panto”, some of us said earlier in the year and do one we
did!
Written by Vivienne Wilkes. A very enjoyable play to perform camels and all. Everyone worked hard on and off the stage. |
| 2007 |
 |
Farmer
Giles of Ham |
In
the Performance Pavillion at Sarehole Mill the group put on and
performed J.R.R. Tolkien's Farmer Giles of Ham. |
| 2006 |
 |
The
Hobbit |
A
very strong performance back at the Mill ensured that Shire
Productions are now a mainstream attraction at the Tolkien Weekend. |
| 2006 |
 |
Honk |
Originally conceived as an ensemble piece for 8 actors, we used all our company, together with the
MOSkeetoes Youth Group to present a thoroughly different style. |
| 2005 |
 |
The
Importance of Being Earnest 2005 |
Jack
loves Gwendolen. Algernon loves Cecily. Gwendolen and Cecily love
Ernest. Gwendolen thinks Jack is named Earnest. Cecily thinks
Alfernon is named Ernest. Lady Bracknell disapproves of it all. |
| 2005 |
 |
Farmer
Giles of Ham - at Aston University |
The Company presented Farmer Giles of Ham at Tolkien 2005, the international gathering for Tolkien fans held at Aston University in Birmingham. |
| 2004 |
|
The
Importance of Being Earnest |
Jack
loves Gwendolen. Algernon loves Cecily. Gwendolen and Cecily love
Ernest. Gwendolen thinks Jack is named Earnest. Cecily thinks
Alfernon is named Ernest. Lady Bracknell disapproves of it all. |
| 2004 |
 |
Pendragon |
Originally created by the National Youth Music Theatre it is an ensemble piece; everyone in chorus, and members step out to take principle roles, including our
youth group, the MOSkeetoes.Pendragon presents a dramatic and dynamic version of the early days of King Arthur, Guinevere, Merlin and Morgan Le Fay. |
| 2004 |
 |
Tolkien
Excerpts 2004 |
Visitors
to the Tolkien Festival took themed walking tours "in the
footsteps of Tolkien" or visited the Bog and enjoyed one of the
excerpts from Lord of the Rings performed by
the group in J.R.R Tolkien's old haunts and among his influences. |
| 2004 |
 |
Songs
from the Shows |
|
| 2003 |
 |
Taste
of the Orient |
The
Little Town of Linga Longa is in the throes of its tea tasting
festival overseen by the Lady Flour Face special envoy to the
Empress. Madame Sockitoa and Madam Infusia are rivals in the
competition to find the best tea in china and in order to decide
which one is the winner they are sent to the Island of Tati B'hai by
the dastardly Earl Grey. |
| 2003 |
 |
The
Hobbit |
We
performed guided tours in character of Tolkien's childhood haunts;
story-walks with scenes from The Lord of the Rings or The
Hobbit within Moseley Bog itself. |
| 2002 |
 |
The
Hobbit |
In
the mill courtyard and on the green, Shire Productions
performed dramatised scenes from The Hobbit on Sunday
and Lord of the Rings on Sunday. |
| 2002 |
 |
Moseley
Institute Concert |
|
| 2002 |
 |
The
Pied Piper |
Adapted by Vivienne Wilkes from the original poem by Robert Browning it turned the story on its head.
The play followed the rats not the Piper. Instead of dramatic drama the play was largely unrelenting comedy and so the perfect play for
MOS. And who can forget the rats Riverdance!?! |
| 2001 |
 |
The
Pajama Game |
The Pajama Game is a musical based on the novel 7-1/2 Cents by Richard Bissell. It features a score by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. The story deals with labour troubles in a pajama factory, where worker demands for a seven-and-a-half cents raise are going unheeded. |
| 2001 |
 |
Lions
Concert |
|
| 2000 |
 |
Godspell |
Ostensibly Godspell is a jolly romp through the stories and parables in St Matthew’s Gospel, but it is in fact much
more. It deals with the formation of a community, fused together by common ideology and finding the courage to carry their beliefs out into the world. |
   |
The 90's
| Date |
Flyer |
Show |
Detail |
| 1999 |
 |
Concert |
|
| 1999 |
 |
The
Card |
The Card is a musical with a book by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall and music and lyrics by Tony Hatch and Jackie
Trent. It chronicles the rise of Denry Machin from washerwoman’s son to Mayor of Bursley through luck, guile, initiative, and a fair bit of chutzpah. |
| 1999 |
 |
Sing
For Your Supper |
Revues have been a popular form of entertainment throughout the Twentieth Century, from Vaudeville through to Ziegfeld to Footlights and beyond. Their structure was suited to the smaller company, and, as we’re temporarily short of staff at that time, it seemed
a perfect show. |
| 1998 |
 |
Annie
Gets Your Gun |
Annie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music written by Irving Berlin and a book by Herbert Fields and his sister Dorothy Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley who was a sharpshooter from Ohio. |
| 1997 |
 |
HMS
Pinafore |
Pinafore is among the most popular Gilbert and Sullivan
operas. Gilbert embued HMS Pinafore with mirth and silliness to spare. The opera’s gentle satire reprises and builds upon one of The Sorcerer’s themes: Love between members of different social classes. |
| 1996 |
 |
Mame |
Mame is a well-to-do in
New York at the turn of the twenties. It is based on the 1955 fictional novel Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis and a 1956 Broadway play, by Lawrence and Lee, that had starred Rosalind Russell. |
| 1995 |
 |
The
Pirates of Penzance |
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert.The story concerns Frederic, who, having completed his 21st year, is released from his apprenticeship to a band of tenderhearted pirates. |
| 1994 |
 |
Calamity
Jane |
Calamity Jane (A Musical Western) is a stage play and musical loosely based on tales from the life of Calamity Jane (Martha Jane
Cannary). Set in the Wild West frontiers and especially around Deadwood City in Dakota, and in the period of the 1876 Gold Rush. |
| 1993 |
 |
Viva
Mexico |
Mendoza, Mexico’s maddest revolutionary, has heard that a stage coach due to pass by El Rancho Grande carries a million American dollars on their way to support the tyrannical rule of the current
Presidente. |
| 1993 |
 |
MOS
The First 20 Years |
This show celebrated the shows, the music and the people that had contributed to the ongoing success of the group
MOS. The also gave the opportunity for some of the less recognised and younger members a chance to showcase their talents on centre stage |
| 1992 |
 |
The
Yeoman of the Guard |
The mood of this operetta
was remarkably different from anything else G&S had previously produced. Of course there was wit and humour, but there was also gravity and
tragedy. It was later claimed that this show was Gilbert’s favourite production. |
| 1991 |
 |
Lilac
Time |
With the music of Franz Schubert and adapted for the stage by Heinrich Berte this is a captivating adaptation for stage based on a fictitious yet feasible story of the life of Shubert. Arranged by Ronald
Hanmer. The original book and lyrics by Dr. A.M. Willner and Heinz Reichert. |
| 1990 |
 |
The
Gilbert & Sullithon |
The Gilbert & Sullithon began as a fanciful idea in November 1989 whilst watching the BBC Children in Need Appeal programme. It was thought that, Since the MOS had been raising money for charities in small ways for many years, it was about time we did something a bit bigger. |
| 1990 |
 |
The
Arcadians |
The Arcadians is an Edwardian musical comedy styled a “Fantastic Musical Play” in three acts by Mark Ambient and Alexander M. Thompson, with lyrics by Arthur Wimperis and music by Lionel Monckton and Howard Talbot. |
|
The 80's
| Date |
Flyer |
Show |
Detail |
| 1989 |
 |
Little
Mary Sunshine |
Little Mary Sunshine is a musical that parodies old-fashioned operettas and musicals. The book, music, and lyrics are by Rick Besoyan. |
| 1988 |
 |
Ruddigore |
The “supernatural opera” opened on January 21, 1887 at the Savoy
Theatre. One critic noted, Gilbert turns the moral absolutes of melodrama upside down: Good becomes bad, bad becomes good, and heroes take the easy way out. |
| 1987 |
 |
The
Boy Friend |
The Boy Friend (sometimes mis-spelled The Boyfriend) is a musical by Sandy Wilson.
.Set in the carefree world of the French Riviera in the Roaring 1920s, The Boy Friend is a comic pastiche of 1920s shows. The title is an obvious parody of The Girl Friend. |
| 1986 |
 |
Birmingham
Mind’s Musical Evening |
|
| 1986 |
 |
Orpheus
in the Underworld |
The classic tale of Orpheus and Eurydice has been the subject of opera for nearly four hundred
years. Our version was made to focus on the farce. It contained all the elements: a married couple that don’t get on, an
interfering mother-in-law and a father who can’t keep his family in order. |
| 1985 |
 |
Sunday
Serenade |
An
opportunity for the group to showcase some of the members who did
not get to perform centre stage and was a great success. |
| 1985 |
 |
Friday
Follies |
The Friday follies were a collection of songs and dances from a number of shows which had previously been performed by MOS. It was put on as a one day event to help raise money and achieve some exposure for the charity ‘The Children’s Society’. |
| 1985 |
 |
Patience |
This is the second time MOS put on the show Patience and once again is a much loved production in the history of the group. |
| 1984 |
 |
Fiddler
on the Roof |
Fiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters
and his attempts to maintain his family and religious traditions while outside influences encroach upon their lives. |
| 1983 |
 |
Sunday
Serenade |
An
opportunity for the group to showcase some of the members who did
not get to perform centre stage and was a great success. |
| 1983 |
 |
Iolanthe |
This was a very apt show to do as it just happened to be shown on the year of a general election. Apt because the show is all a depiction on the cunning minds, wit and corruption of government, It also centres around womens new role in
goverment. |
| 1982 |
 |
Brigadoon |
Described by its authors as “a whimsical musical fantasy”, Brigadoon is set in a magic Scottish village which comes out of the Highland mists once every hundred years, only to disappear after one day. Two American tourists
on a visit to Scotland get lost in a forest and stumble on the village. |
| 1981 |
 |
An
Old
Time Evening |
A
charity event for distinguished guests in the promotion and support
of the Church of England Children's Society 'Children First' |
| 1981 |
 |
The
Arcadians |
The light hearted story concerns the efforts of a group of Arcadians to convert London Society to the philosophy of truth and beauty. How far they succeed
is revealed in the play. |
| 1980 |
 |
Trial By Jury
& The
Pirates of Penzance |
MOS
put to stage two Gilbert&Sullivan shows in one go - Trial By Jury
& The Pirates of Penzance. The first concerns Angelina in an action for breach of promise in which she sues for damages and gets more than she expected! In the second it's about
becoming a slave to a sense of duty. |
|
The 70's
| Date |
Flyer |
Show |
Detail |
| 1979 |
 |
The
Merry Widow |
Anna Glavari, a wealthy widow and citizen of Pontevedro, is a guest at the Pontevedrian Embassy in Paris. Baron Zeta, the
Ambassador is most anxious that Anna does not marry a foreigner and take her millions out of Pontevedro.
This is a colourful drama set in ‘Gay Paree’ at the turn of the century. |
| 1978 |
 |
The
Gondoliers |
The only son to King of Barataria was married by proxy in infancy to Casilda, the daughter of the Duke of Plaza-Toro. The Ducal party arrive in Venice to acclaim Casilda’s right to the throne after the King’s
death. |
| 1977 |
 |
The
Yeomen
of the Guard |
This show is probably the nearest Gilbert and Sullivan came to writing a grand opera. Set in those dark Tudor days, when religious fractions clashed and axe and block waited at the Tower, a tragic tail of intrigue, human folly and unrequited love is unfolded. |
| 1976 |
 |
Patience |
In “Patience” W.S Gilbert turns his attention to the Victorian Arts and makes mock of many things taken very seriously in the 1800’s. The two main characters are poets, Bunthorne, by his own admission ‘an
Aesthetic Sham’, and the more straightforward Grosvenor, ‘Archibald the
all-right’. |
| 1975 |
 |
The
Mikado |
The Moseley Operatic Society chose ‘The Mikado’ to be their third production. This Japanese frolic is easily the favourite G&S Opera, famous for its hit tunes such as ‘Three
Little Maids from School’ and ‘A wandering Minstrel I’. |
| 1974 |
 |
Ruddigore |
In the fishing village of Rederring a corps of professional bridesmaids hopefully prepare for the marriage of Rose Maybud to an eligible bachelor.
Love wins out in true Gilbert and Sullivan style. |
| 1973 |
 |
Pirates
of Penzance |
Set in a cove somewhere along the Cornish coast the pirates meet to celebrate Frederic’s coming of age. |
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