Show The Yeomen of the Guard must go on at Preston Playhouse despite theatre director's crash

Super-troupers (l-r) Sue Hurrell with Merle Winstanley outside Preston Playhouse

And it is.

Sue, co-director of The Yeomen of the Guard at Preston Playhouse, took the ‘break a leg’ good luck wish a tad too far when she found herself in a back brace for three months following her car crash.

The Leyland resident said: “I was suspended for half an hour by my seat belt. I wasn’t worried about myself, I was more worried about what my husband would say about the car.

“Then I started thinking about what would happen to the show – we were just about to start rehearsals.”

Sue had been driving on the Leyland bypass last November when she suddenly found her car on its roof and herself upside down at the roadside.

Cue Merle Winstanley, originally co-director, was now suddenly centre stage as lead director. “To get out of actually doing any directing at all Sue wrapped her car around a tree,” said Merle. “Originally I’d jokingly said we could direct together and Sue came back and said yes – we’re doing it.

“Neither of us imagined she would be laid up in hospital. I usually wear the music director’s hat and wave the baton but this was my first time as a director – I was absolutely petrified.”

During Sue’s two weeks in hospital the pair spent many evenings on the ward planning the show, with Merle then turning Sue’s ideas into reality at rehearsals with a company full of

National Operatic and Dramatic Association award winners and nominees. Even trips to X-ray did not stop the pair from working.

Longton-resident Merle said: “Every time I was setting something new I’d go and see Sue and discuss it.”

“At one point I even went with Sue as she was going down to X-ray. We just kept talking – never mind the pain we needed to discuss ideas.”

Sue was able to return to rehearsals after Christmas, but three months in a back brace meant that rehearsals were gruelling. But they were determined the show must go on. Merle said:

“There’s such a lot of hard work gone into this show and the commitment of the group is amazing. We are like a family and we didn’t want to let our cast or our paying customers down.”

Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Yeoman of the Guard will runs March 4 to 7 at 7.30pm at Preston Playhouse in Market Street West.

Tickets cost £12. See www.prestongass.co.uk or call the box office on 07779 738607. Under 15s free with a paying adult.