JORVIK Gilbert and Sullivan Company are to present The Sorcerer in an updated setting at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, from September 17 to 19.

The York company will be following up their 2014 production of Iolanthe, performances of Cox & Box and selection of Gilbert and Sullivan favourites that they sang in March and April.

The Sorcerer, Gilbert and Sullivan’s first full-length work from 1877, will be staged in a First World War setting in 1915 to highlight its exploration of the notion of love levelling all ranks.

In this version, Alexis and the male chorus are soldiers who have returned home from the Front on leave. In such a quiet village, however, sometimes a little assistance is required, so a sorcerer enters with a love potion and soon the calm and simple world is turned on its head.

The love potion is secretly administered, sending all who drink it to sleep. When they awake, it causes them to fall madly in love with the first person of the opposite sex they see, who happens to have drunk the potion too. What could possibly go wrong?

Lois Cross will direct The Sorcerer, having been in charge of the Jorvik company's productions of Princess Ida in 2011 and Ruddigore in 2013. "I'm delighted to be returning," she says. "I look forward to helping the company continue to go from strength to strength by creating a high-quality that's fun, enjoyable and entertaining."

Resident musical director Matthew Collins adds: “We all know that the course of love is never smooth, but when enchantment is at work, as it is in The Sorcerer, things can become chaotic, to say the least.”

Principal roles will go to Thomas Newby as Sir Marmaduke Pointdextre; Stuart Roberts as Alexis; Alex Schofield, Dr Daly; Derek Thomson, Notary; Mark Simmonds, John Wellington Wells; Louise Wyatt, Lady Sangazure; Fiona Bowman, Aline, and Georgie Martin, Constance.

Tickets cost £12, concessions £10, under-16s free, on 01904 623568, at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or via email sent to tickets@jorvikgsc.org.uk.

For more information on Jorvik Gilbert and Sullivan Company, visit their website, jorvikgsc.org.uk, or email info@jorvikgsc.org.uk. You can find them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.