Three silly sisters singing in close harmony and a major-general with a 21st century patter routine are just the beginning of what audiences can expect from Queanbeyan Players’ 60th anniversary production of The Pirates of Penzance.

The ever-spritely players, reinvented in recent years with edgy modern productions such as American Idiot, Bubble Boy and Next to Normal, are taking a sentimental journey back to their year of incorporation, 1975, when they first staged Pirates in Queanbeyan High School auditorium. 

This time, they’ll be performing the so-called Essgee adaptation by Simon Gallaher, whose wild performances with Jon English trod the Australian stages for years. 

But Queanbeyan Players’ history reaches back much further. 

They were founded by the late Norma Roach, who came from England with her doctor husband Trevor and settled in Queanbeyan, where she organised nativity plays at her local Methodist Church. That graduated to melodramas then finally “straight” plays, done with a group of like-minded people. 

Beginning in 1965 with the comedy, Running Riot, in the Methodist Hall, in due course they turned to their mainstay, musicals. 

According to their daughter, Helen McIntyre, this led to becoming a formal group hosted by the Arts Council as the Queanbeyan Arts Council Players, later renamed The Queanbeyan Players. Over many years Norma was a director, performer, wardrobe mistress and publicity officer, serving on steering groups for both the Bicentennial Centre and The Q, while Trevor built sets and sold programs.

Back in April, The Hayes Theatre toured to The Playhouse with a very silly version of Pirates using just five actors.

Director of the Queanbeyan show and vice president of the players Alison Newhouse is expecting even more silliness, but hastens to assure dyed-in-the-wool G&S fans that all the classic arias are there, along with the trills and the patter songs, of which I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General is surely the most famous.

The recurring chorus of three sisters will look a bit like three ugly sisters, though otherwise, she says, they’re aiming to make the costumes “very attractive”.

Newhouse notes that The Pirates was a parody in the first place, so this is a bit like a parody of a parody.

She first joined Queanbeyan Players’ in 2006, later directed, was president for three years and has been on the committee for 12 years. “It’s not good to stay forever,” she says, so she stepped down to make ways for younger talents, such as conductor-director Jen Hinton.

“Taking a risk can be a good thing and it means the Queanbeyan Players maintains its history by giving young people a foot in the door.”

Comedian David Cannell gets to play the Major General and when I catch up with him, I find he’s been writing a few of his own words for the role. 

Cannell, armed with degrees in engineering, zoology and science communication, has been working for 30 years as an actor presenter at Questacon, “doing anything weird and crazy and blowing things up”.

One of the best-known personalities on local musical stages, he’s been joining in some of Queanbeyan Players’ newer productions, where, he says, “I was 25 to 30 years older than the next person.”

A Gilbert and Sullivan tragic, he has done the G&S lap of honour with the big three – Pirates, Pinafore and The Mikado.

He’s especially mastered many of the patter routines, including When I was a Lad I Served a Term by Sir Joseph Porter in HMS Pinafore. 

“I love patters,” Cannell tells me. “ I love not just the fast numbers, but making them relevant.” So he’s made “a few minor upgrades” to the Major General’s dialogue and has completely rewritten his encore, although he doesn’t guarantee it will see the light of day.

One new line he’s toying with is: “In affairs of foreign nature, Let us make Britannia great again.” 

In contrast to Sir Joseph, who may be seen as a bumbling fool, the Major General is a cunning fox, too clever by half at times.

“It’s a classic comic role,” says Cannell. “I’ve played him before, and I thought I needed a break, but then I got a phone call from Queanbeyan Players asking me to do it again.”

Cannell loved the part so much that he replied: “A pleasure, yes please!”

The Pirates of Penzance,Queanbeyan Players, The Q, July 3-13.