House Of The Gods is a Gothic opera set in a back-street pub in London's East End, just after the First World War.

The pub is run by Ma and Da, a couple of Celtic Gods, and the opera includes magic tricks and illusions from the era, including famous trick "catching the bullet". Jack O'Connor, a disillusioned soldier back from the Front, finds himself living through what seems like a macabre and surreal opium dream.

The award-winning team behind this new opera are Uckfield-born composer Lynne Plowman and television writer and former Punch and Judy man Martin Riley.

Lynne is a rising star of the classical world, having won the inaugural British Composer Award for her last opera, and here Martin explains how their unusual partnership works.

"Lynne and I were thrown together by Opera North to run workshops for children, and when I first heard some of her serious compositions, they rather shocked me. They had so much depth and darkness, power and precision - and there was Lynne, standing beside me in her favourite flowery flares conducting a gang of children in a fruit salad jazz featuring pineapple chunks and bananas!

"And she's still the same, unpretentious and adventurous with a surreal sense of fun and a thirst for adventure - just like Gwyneth in our first opera, the peasant girl from Muckfield, who wanted to be a knight. Lynne would be a great knight. I've felt the edge of her blade sometimes - and she's a sharp shooter with a lasergun as well.

"Looking at House Of The Gods, she will say I have some Da-like qualities and maybe a bit of the Jack.

"Lynne took enormous delight in our creation of Lily and her eyes light up when Ma gets really scary'! Like Ma, she knows she can set the world to rights if only she could gather the world leaders round her kitchen table and give them a good talking to - and I'd be right there beside her. Failing that, perhaps we can persuade them to come and see House Of The Gods and pin their ears back.

"Lynne is a complete control freak about her music and that is an absolute delight to me. It has always filled me with confidence in her and given me permission to be the same with my words.

"Discussing a musical finesse of feeling or a choice of a word can keep us happy for hours. Luckily, Lynne has impeccable taste so we never like to settle for less than perfect and are always ready to re-think. We love to say, Let's be radical!'

"Lynne delights in mystery and magic and likes to hang out with fairies and other much scarier spirits - and so do I because, for all our perfectionist planning, the heart of our work lies in a shadowy place into which we choose not to stare directly; for then, as you know, the good folk would be gone.' "

Starts: 7.30pm. Tickets: £22, £18, £15, £10, £6.