Two Norfolk friends have written a musical which they hope will grip audiences in Norwich.
Chris Dilley, 34, from Swaffham and Michael Stoker, 28, from Foxley, met through their involvement in productions of Jesus Christ Superstar, both playing Jesus at different points in the last decade.
Now, they have joined forces to write an original musical which will premiere at Maddermarket Theatre at the start of next month.
Sicarius is set in the dystopian city of Highwinter and follows the tale of an assassin taken from his family as a child and trained to serve an ancient order.
Mr Dilley said: 'We have a professional martial artist choreographing our fight scenes, so there's proper martial arts being used within the piece. And there's also naturalistic acting in there - we deal with themes like regret, redemption, love, loss, betrayal and envy.
'So although it is a fantasy epic with fully orchestrated, powerful, driven music, we tried to incorporate proper truthful characters that tell real stories. Hopefully audiences will be exhilarated by the beautiful, rich score and will be able to relate to the characters that we have created.'
Mr Stoker has written the music and Mr Dilley has written the script for the musical, though they collaborated throughout the process to shape each other's work.
Georgia Millan has helped choreograph the production and has allowed the team to rehearse at the Heather Millan School of Dance and Performing Arts in Cowgate, Norwich.
The production has also enlisted the help of Michelle and Sophie Blanks of Dereham Theatre Costumes, who are supplying costume and make-up.
The cast of 14 is now in the final stages of rehearsals and Mr Dilley said he was delighted with the efforts of the regional performers.
He said: 'We have got together a group of really talented, committed locals who have been awesome actually, they've really dedicated themselves to the project. We're just polishing off the finishing touches now, making sure the harmonies are clean and the costumes are correct and the like.'
Sicarius will run from 1-3 of March at 7.30pm, with an additional matinee performance on the Saturday at 2.30pm.
Tickets are priced at £12 and are available from maddermarket.co.uk/production/view/457More information and music clips from the show can be found on the Sicarius Facebook page and www.sicariusproductions.com
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