Gilbert and Sullivan Society

There are a number of Gilbert and Sullivan Societies in South Africa. These include:

The Cape Town Gilbert and Sullivan Society

The Cape Town Gilbert and Sullivan Society was founded in 1947 with a staging of The Yeomen of the Guard in the Cape Town City Hall. The Mayor of Cape Town at that time was appointed, ex officio, as the Honorary President of the Society, and all subsequent Mayors of Cape Town have held this position.

This is an amateur society and productions are done entirely on a community theatre basis, that is, no performer is paid, and directors and specialist technicians are given honoraria only. Except for the annual donations which the Society makes to such enterprises as the music programme of the Amy Biel Foundation Trust, to the Cape Amateur Theatre Awards, and to the Cape Eisteddfod, any surplus income from productions is retained and put towards the costs of future productions.

The Society has produced at least one, and sometimes two operas, or other musical works, per year in and around Cape Town.

For many years it performances took place in a range of venues, including the Labia Theatre, the Hofmeyr Theatre, and various Civic Centres. From 1983 onwards however, productions have been done at the Baxter Theatre or in the at the Nico Malan Theatre (later Artscape).

Productions in recent times alternate between Broadway musicals as well as works of the Gilbert and Sullivan genre. Recent shows include My Fair Lady, Annie, and Fiddler on the Roof, all three of which played in the Artscape Opera House.

In 2005, the Society was invited to bring its production of The Pirates of Penzance, which played to 97% houses in a three-week season at the Artscape Theatre in June of that year, to the annual International Festival of Gilbert and Sullivan in Buxton, Derbyshire, England. Buxton in 2007. On that occasion, the lead singers in our production of The Gondoliers won the award for the best duet. In 2012 we travelled to Buxton again, this time with our production of The Yeomen of the Guard.

in 2007, our diamond jubilee year, we were given a “Molteno Gold Medal” by the Cape Tercentenary Foundation for our lifetime service to the performing arts in the Western Cape.