STUDENTS of the late Victorian arts world will know Patience as Gilbert and Sullivan's dig at the Aesthetic Movement and its preening champions such as Swinburne and Wilde and the artists Whistler and Aubrey Beardsley.

No need to bone up on your history of art and literature if taking in next week's production at Nottingham Arts Theatre, says director Linda Croston.

"It's all about the music," she says, "and while those who know something about Aestheticism will find something for them in the production, let's face it, how many of them will? Probably not many."

This Patience will be the first pairing of Croston, an experienced Notts-based professional director and performer, with West Bridgford Operatic Society.

"They gave me a choice of four Gilbert and Sullivans," she says. "I had a chat with the music director and we thought, 'Let's go for Patience – let's give them something really good to sing!'"

Patience, which was premiered at London's Opera Comique in April 1881, was the sixth of the 14 collaborations between librettist W.S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan (who would not become Sir Arthur until 1883).

The show transferred later in 1881, becoming the first of their operettas to be performed at the Savoy Theatre, whose name thereafter became irrevocably linked with their joint output.

Although not nowadays revived as frequently as Savoy Opera stalwarts like The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance, The Gondoliers and HMS Pinafore, Patience was a box office banker in its day and the original London run was, at the time, the second-longest in the history of musical theatre.

The cornerstone of Aesthetic thinking was that in literature, fine art and design, beauty came before content, message or even functionality. "Art for art's sake", if you like. The movement's representatives in Patience are the poets Bunthorne and Grosvenor, both given to grand gesture and the public declamation of their own verse.

"Bunthorne has been attracting the attention of a lot of ladies while their 'ex-men', the dragoon guards, have been away," explains Linda Croston. "The dragoon guards were last year and Bunthorne is this year – in fact it's a bit like the celebrity thing we have rammed down our throats today. Bunthorne is the celebrity of his day."

Only things don't go well for the verse-smith. He has no time for his swooning fan club because he has eyes only for the uncomplicated milkmaid who gives the operetta its name. Alas, Patience is more interested in Grosvenor, who happens to be her childhood sweetheart. There's more. Lots more. But non-Savoyards now have enough to be getting on with.

A musical highlight? For the director it is Patience's doleful song on the subject of love. "It's a solo, but I have kept one or two people on stage," she says. "I like a show to flow."

Linda Croston remains much in demand as a performer and a director specialising in musicals. She is the voice of "Betty" on TV's current wonga.com commercial. Recent work includes staging a community production at Lakeside Arts Centre of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods. She will soon be involved in Salad Days at Newark and will direct The Pirates of Penzance in Grantham.

Patience runs at Nottingham Arts Theatre in George Street from Tuesday to Saturday, at 7.30pm, plus 2pm Saturday matinee. Tickets are £12 (conc £10, children £6) from the box office, call 0115 947 6096 or visit www.nottingham-theatre.co.uk