"All for one and one for all," will be the prevailing theme in this weekend's performance of The Three Musketeers by the Royal Ballet of Flanders at 8 p.m. tomorrow in Eisenhower Auditorium.

The show covers the adventures of the famed swordsmen Porthos, Athos, Aramis and D'Artagnan, their triumphs over evil and their tribulations for love. The scene is set in France and England during 1625, and the Musketeers loyally serve the Queen of France and defeat her enemy the Cardinal Richelieu.

Porthos, Athos and Aramis are already members of the Kings Musketeers, while D'Artagnan is a young man who travels to Paris in the hopes of becoming one.

Throughout the show, evil schemes are hatched by the wicked Cardinal Richelieu, the Queen's arch nemesis, and by his own troop of guards. The Musketeers are able to overcome the evil plots — no matter what the odds — while managing to maintain their friendships and their loyalty to their queen.

Peter Wray, press and public relations manager for the Center for the Performing Arts, said the performance has a broad appeal to audiences.

"It's a swashbuckling ballet. The Three Musketeers is a great story that has been told time and time again in different genres," Wray said.

The ballet is based on the novel written by Alexandre Dumas in 1844. Dumas was born on July 24, 1805 near Paris. By the age of 25, he had his first success as a playwright and then moved on to novels. Throughout his career he wrote hundreds of plays and novels, including children's stories.

Although his most successful novels were not considered "deep," they were full of action and amazing characters. Dumas died in 1870 after several years of writing and traveling.

Some of his most famous works include The Count of Monte-Cristo and The Nutcracker.

All of the music written for the ballet is based on the works of Guiseppe Verdi. He composed a great deal of ballet music for his operas because ballets were performed during intermissions or in between acts while the actors prepared for their next scene. Nowadays, many of those ballets are omitted from performances and recordings of the operas.

The Three Musketeers, the ballet, was created in 1980, but was later updated to a two-act version in 1996. Since the ballet is fairly young, in terms of ballet, the creators decided to utilize the wonderful, unused ballet music of the past.

André Prokovsky, choreographer of the company, believes melodrama should not be taken too seriously, so he has attempted to incorporate humor throughout the ballet. Wray agrees that this ballet is a bit different and more fun than the typical ballet.

"Not your usual stayed ballet, it has something for everyone," Wray said.

Tickets are $30 and $20 for general admission, $25 and $17 for students, $15 and $7 for Penn State students, and $15 and $9 for children under the age of 12.