SAUNDERSFOOT Footlights step into the spotlight of the village’s new Regency Hall for the first time next week with their production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance.

This is the third time that the G&S comic favourite has been performed in the village. Saundersfoot Musical Youth gave it its first airing, before Footlights staged it in 2005.

Nine years on, and it was decided that this was the perfect show for the return to the Regency Hall, which was opened last September after a £1.4m rebuilding programme.

The story of Pirates of Penzance begins on a rocky seashore where the pirates are celebrating the coming-of-age of young Frederic (Mark Drakeford), who tells the Pirate King (Gareth Morris) he will be leaving them.

Frederic is about to marry his nanny Ruth (Andrea Thomas), when he meets the three beautiful daughters of Major-General Stanley (Teifion Powell) and falls in love with the youngest, Mabel (Zara Colley).

The pirates try to abduct the girls, and Frederic arranges for a Sergeant (Roger Leese) and his police force to help defeat his former buccaneering comrades.

The show runs from Monday (May 26) to Saturday May 31 in the Regency Hall, each night at 7.30pm. Tickets are available from the hall, Evans Newsagents, Saundersfoot and on the door or the night.