The Gilbert and Sullivan Newsletter Archive

GILBERTIAN GOSSIP

No 45 Autumn 1997     Edited by Michael Walters



H.M.S. PINAFORE. Vale Gilbert and Sullivan Society, The Court Theatre, Pendley, Tring, Herts. 10th May 1997, Saturday matinee.

The theatre is a converted barn with no pros arch. Curtains are therefore rarely used, and this Pinafore proved to be a fairly modern battleship, with a huge gun mounted amidships. It was moored at Tilbury, not Portsmouth, and the backdrop showed Tower Bridge in a curious rural landscape, but with a red London bus driving over it. The ladies were all very attractively dressed as 1920s "flappers", and the very competent accompaniment (two pianos) were on a very high balcony, sort-of where the "bridge" would have been. How on earth they managed to lift the pianos up to that height is beyond my imagination. Most of the singing was adequate, but no more. The company certainly boasts no outstanding singers. By far the best performer was Josephine (Melanie Roberts) who played the part like Thoroughly Modern Millie, and the quaint affected delivery was extremely amusing. It wasn't the way to play Josephine, but one had to laugh. It was the first time that the scene between Ralph and Josephine in Act 1 emerged as the funniest scene in the show - entirely due to the lady's performance, as the contribution from Ralph (Craig White) was almost nil. Stewart Collins was one of those not obviously funny people who try too hard and end up by failing. He played Sir Joseph with a lisp, which was too studied to sound convincing, and too contrived (and erratic) to be funny. Dick Deadeye (Iain Lamb) was not deformed, or even ugly. He was quite tall, and stood very straight, certainly not three-cornered, which made all the lines about his appearance nonsensical. Ian Wells gave a very satisfactory no-nonsense rendering of Captain Corcoran. Glenda Smith played Buttercup almost like Moll Flanders in a scarlet dress, and a very "forward" manner, hanging round Corcoran's neck in a way which in Gilbert's time would have been described as a shameless hussy. It wasn't the character Gilbert wrote, but I suppose it was a "new reading". The Hebe dialogue was restored. Their next production is as chorus to Lorraine Daniels, Deborah Clague, Geoffrey Shovelton, John Ayldon & David Mackie at the Court Theatre on Saturday 15th November 1997.

MICHAEL WALTERS



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