Camp as a row of tents, one critic called this all-male version of one of Gilbert and Sullivan's favourite operas when it opened at the Union Theatre at the end of 2010. Of course it is, and it's brilliant. I missed the original production because of theatrical diversions elsewhere, but it's now been partly recast and moved to the atmospheric Victorian surroundings of Wilton's Music Hall.
What director Sasha Regan has done is reinvent the show for a modern audience without distorting it, and without attempting to modernise it or bring it up to date. There's a wonderful opening sequence during the overture when the cast, carrying torches, explore the darkened theatre, picking up dusty props and trying on forgotten costumes. They start reading a dog-eared copy of Iolanthe, then scurry away into the darkness because someone -- imagine a school prefect or a housemaster -- has spotted them. It's a perfect framing device for this spectacularly silly story about fairies.
The costumes have an improvised feel, suggesting the contents of a dressing-up box from a 1920s school dormitory. There are corsets, vintage petticoats and frilly panties, dressing gowns and ridiculous hats. Designer Stewart Charlesworth and his team have created a perfect match for the impeccable choreography (Mark Smith) and musical delivery (Christopher Mundy) of this show. It's slick, witty, inventive, full of subtle visual gags and even manages to convey genuine feeling in the relationship between the unlucky couple Strephon and Phyllis, the young ward in chancery he hopes to marry. Hats off to Louis Maskell (Strephon) and to Alan Richardson (Phyllis) -- particularly to the latter for his delicate counter-tenor singing. Christopher Finn (Iolanthe) and Alex Weatherill (Fairy Queen) are also outstanding. Shaun McCourt (Lord Chancellor) and the ensemble of fairies and eccentric peers make up the rest of a cast of this terrific show, which is funny because it's played absolutely straight.
To my great regret I didn't get to see Sasha Regan's Pirates of Penzance, which used many of the same cast. I can't think of any theatre better than Wilton's, with its crumbly, cobwebby historic interior, to stage this show. It's not just funny, but has a charming innocence, which to me is the secret of bringing off a performance in high camp style. Rather than knowingly poking fun at the fairies or lapsing into pantomime jokes, it encourages the audience to suspend their disbelief. We all at one time or another have enjoyed dressing up -- if not as a fairy, then perhaps with a tin helmet or something equally unsuitable found mouldering away in a suitcase in the attic. W.S. Gilbert would have loved this production (I'm not so sure about Sullivan, whose sense of humour was occasionally found wanting). My only regret is that, having enjoyed this Iolanthe so much, it will be a very long time before I ever want to see anyone else's production of it.
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