Devon solicitor takes command on stage

A partner of Honiton-based law firm Beviss & Beckingsale is preparing to assume command on stage, playing the Major General in a new production of “The Pirates of Penzance” starting in Exeter this week.

Solicitor Mark Ollier, who lives in Exeter, is reprising the role he’s played twice before, in Seaton for the Testudo Players and in Sidmouth for the town’s Arts Club Operatic Society.

Mark says: “Although I’m a lawyer by day, I love performing to an audience and strutting my stuff on stage. In this role I get to sing the well-known patter song "I am the very model of a modern Major General”, which has to be sung very fast with great clarity and diction.”

"It’s an honour to act with the St. David’s Players and we’re sure the audience will enjoy what promises to be a really fun-filled show, with tunes you’re bound to find yourself whistling all the way home."

The Gilbert and Sullivan classic is a send-up of Victorian society, opera, the House of Lords and the police with madcap adventures involving blundering policemen and swashbuckling pirates.

It runs from Tuesday 6th to Saturday 10th October at Exeter's Barnfield Theatre.