AUDIENCE members will take on the roles of pirates, policemen and the Major General's daughters on Saturday when Come and Sing The Pirates of Penzance goes on stage at Salisbury Playhouse.

Ian McMillan is returning to the city with G&S4U and D’Oyly Carte soloists following last January's huge success of Come and Sing HMS Pinafore.

Under McMillan's dynamic direction, the audience, from the comfort of their seats, make up the chorus in the classic comic opera.

McMillan, a West End musicals and opera conductor who trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, said: "Pirates of Penzance is a natural follow-on from HMS Pinafore - it's HMS Pinafore on land, it's a similar story and a similar set-up.

"Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore was doing so well and there were so many pirated versions in America that Gilbert and Sullivan decided to thwart the copyright pirates literally, by writing Pirates of Penzance as they were crossing the Atlantic to New York, so it simultaneously opened in England and New York.

"It's quite appropriate because the English National Opera production starts soon."

McMillan first produced Gilbert and Sullivan's Trial by Jury in 1977 for the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond and has been touring with it, HMS Pinnafore and Pirates of Penzance, ever since.

"We don't perform every week, it's more like every couple of months," McMillan says.

"The audience participation was my idea. I recognised there was potential - because there are so many of us that would like to be in operas - to do it in an hour, which seems a bit crazy, and put it on in venues.

"It's not like singing in a choral society or choir who have to be serious, it's a bit of a romp, and fortunately we can use the experience of people who do sing in choral societies who help the less experienced.

"The biggest challenge is never knowing what kind of group you're going to get.

"We've done about 400 shows over the years with the three productions and there was only one, in Durham, which had a small audience because the weather was so atrocious, and even then we did get away with it.

"I remember the Salisbury audience very warmly, they were all in the spirit which might be because it comes at the end of panto season.

"We have six costumed D’Oyly Carte principal soloists and then we have two extras plucked from the audience on the spur of the moment."

The two small parts are for a male and female role, similar to those in last year's show.

"I am casting a beady eye over the audience for 20 minutes or so before," McMillan admits.

"I look for those who are extra animated and seem to know what they are doing.

"The show is for all ages and all abilities, you don't have to be able to sing.

"It's nice to see some of the older generation who grew up with Gilbert and Sullivan, going to theatres with their parents and grandparents, now bring their own grandchildren to introduce them to Gilbert and Sullivan."

The songs were very much a part of McMillan's own heritage who says he adores the light-heartedness of operettas, a lighter form of opera, to pieces of grand opera.

"It's the fun of it," he says.

"The words of Gilbert and Sullivan are very much part of our language - with Gilbert's words and Sullivan's catchy tunes, they are still proving popular."

McMillan who specialises in music from stage and screen has conducted many of the major UK Orchestra's including The Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus at The Royal Albert Hall, The Royal Philharmonic, The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus and The BBC Concert Orchestra.

Come and Sing The Pirates of Penzance is on Saturday at 7.30pm.

Tickets are £18.50 which includes a programme and edited score.

For more details visit salisburyplayhouse.com or call 01722 320333.