RICHMOND’s Georgian Theatre Royal is to host an authentic Napoleonic era play as part of the annual Georgian Festival in the town.

A professional orchestra and local community cast will stage the performance of Guilbert de Pixerécourt’s The Fortress on the Danube (1805) with the help of researchers from the University of Warwick.

This one-off performance will be the first adaption of the French melodrama to appear in over a century and forms part of a four-year project aiming to boost our understanding of Napoleonic theatre.

Dr Katherine Astbury, the project’s leader from the University of Warwick, said: “The Georgian Theatre Royal, Britain's oldest working theatre in its original form, is the perfect venue and we are delighted that they’ve let us run a community project to coincide with the town’s Georgian Festival.

“Melodrama was one of the most popular genres across Europe in the early 19th century and the performance of The Fortress on the Danube will give people the chance to act in a play dating from the theatre’s heyday.”

The performance will take place this Friday (August 25) at 7.30pm. Tickets are £9.