So important at this time to be supporting local businesses and culture - I present Trial by Jury and The Zoo by Pocket Theatre. These productions by Pocket Theatre don't seem to be around for very long online tho, so catch them while you can! Pocket Theatre has produced all the Gilbert and Sullivans over the last few years, so you can experience them all! They have been modernised and amended; you get the Victorian theatre experience with contemporary references and settings thrown in. I didn't really get the plots of either of them fully, so a live Tweet review seems the only way forward!
Trial by Jury
- Trial by Jury goes straight into the courtroom and the case - there's no build up of the plot or introduction of the characters, you just arrive!
- There's an awesome singing Judge! Turns out not to be a Judge but a singing barrister or solicitor... The wig alone deserves it own credit.
- The Victorian gags have been updated - he's just mentioned Russell Brand!
- There is a Russell Brand lookalike who's behaved very badly to his wife.
- It's a bit strange - it sounds very moral and traditional - if you really listen to the lyrics, they're very rude about everyone and cynical, a lot of jokes being made whilst sounding very polite. There's a very funny song about how the men in the jury were all cads in their time, but are very well behaved now. It mocks the pretended morals of society!
- The Judge is carried in! His wig is less impressive.
- There's a Runaway Bride - channelling Donna Noble from Doctor Who, I think this is the wronged American wife of the Russell Brand lookalike. It all feels like a polite version of Jerry Springer; The Opera now...
- Some of the words and rhyming in the songs are as impressive as the singing Laweyer/Barrister's wig!
- No idea who the three ladies in the chorus are - friends of the Runaway Bride?
- There's a lot of bribery of the Judge.
- The Russell Brand lookalike wants to marry two women! He doesn't care. This is unfair to Russell Brand who is actually thoughtful and considered.
- Why has his probably ex-wife ended up on a dog leash and being obedient to him? This is meant to be upstanding Gilbert and Sullivan?!!!
- Everyone's singing beautifully and ended up married to everyone else - the wronged wife has gone off with the Judge. No-one cares, it's all resolved!
- Justice is done?
The Zoo
- The Trial was so short, we get a second one!
- The drama's set in a Zoo, and terribly patriotic. Empire rabble rousing!
- Victorian humour is very different - comedy is being made of attempted suicide.
- A Harry Potter lookalike who's gone large is bewailing his life and attempting suicide in public in the Zoo, because he's unable to marry the girl he loves, I think, or he's lost her. But she turns up!
- She also looks like a lost cast member of Harry Potter.
- Maybe lack of parental approval?
- Tho comedic, it's really great that some ordinary working people have a song about romance - this at a time when working people were viewed as another species by some snobbish Victorians.
- The boyfriend of the refreshments seller wants his bill - he's eaten rather a lot of snacks - it's not very healthy!
- He appears to die =(
- CPR was different it appears in Victorian times - don't try this at home! It is like an early version of today online - with all the 'experts' pitching in and contradicting each other.
- The boyfriend of the refreshment seller lives - he was done in by the last snack.
- Some great parodies of musical styles from Bach to opera. It all feels like a Stephen Sondheim musical in the making.
- The refreshments seller takes an awfully long time to sing about going to the chemists - eventually she goes!
- The no-longer dying boyfriend is in fact - a peer of the realm, in disguise, which explains the expensive presents the refreshments seller has been getting from him.
- Who knew that Glasto and Creamfields would be mentioned in Gilbert and Sullivan?!
- Lost the plot literally at this point - I think the Dad of the Harry Potter turns up and there's an argument about what he can do with his life.
- The refreshments seller is proposed to by the now peer of the realm boyfriend and is to become Duchess of Chandlers Ford - (local joke there!)
- She's not sure about this? I'm not sure about this - what is happening?!!
- Somehow, the problem is resolved by the Zoo animals escaping their cages and coming to sing with everyone else - Mr and Ms Harry Potter are able to marry and the Peer and his refreshments seller too.
I would put a link here, but it has gone... So here's the next production - catch it quickly!
The Sorcerer (see above) is like a singing Downton Abbey - see it before it's taken down to make way for the next one!!! No idea who all these people are - singing maids and a lovesick vicar!
HMS Pinafore - It's a bit like the Rocky Horror Show meets polite Victorian. There's a ship and a crew, a lot of flag wagging nationalism and patriotism; the male roles are played by women; the female roles are played by men in crinolines. It's like the pantomime that goes wrong...Sweet Little Buttercup is no longer so sweet but more of a terrifying pantomime dame and one of the bonnets has a beard! But it is very silly!
Patience I've no idea about (there's a school)... but Iolanthe is tremendous. What is not to love about Faeries vs Politicians, and a patriotic song about Mrs T and John Major for all you Tory voters out there! I'm not a fan of Gilbert and Sullivan, but I love the silliness of the plot - a 24 year old man has a 20 something faery mother and a teddy hugging politician dad, who've been separated by the Queen of the Faeries, who's seriously channelling Elizabeth I.
Not sure if it's the key of the songs, the venue, the singers, more speak singing than opera or the recording but the songs are really clearly sung and you can hear every word, which highlights the silly rhyming couplets and sometimes triplets, (such as library, seminary, fairy). The other productions I've seen have mainly really high pitched songs and you can't hear the words so much - maybe Gilbert and Sullivan found a winning formula, who knows? The main male lead in Iolanthe has a really excellent voice and the clarity of the singing is notable. Also worth seeing for what happens when faeries get angry with Peers of the Realm?!!! Prince meets Princess after twenty years.
Princess Ida - Originally written to insult women seeking to be educated and enfranchised, this operetta recycles left over accents from 'Allo 'Allo and thus insults everyone, Brexiteers included! The ultimate anti-cancel culture production! Prince meets Princess after twenty years of engagement - the Princess has set up a women-only school; the Prince and his friends break into the school in disguise - will a happy ending ensue?
Mikado - Modern production; the Lord High Executioner's 'little list' takes cancel culture to new levels by literally cancelling the lives of those who offend. The list is always updated to include new offenders - this one's a bit cheeky and pantomime by comparison to some. It seems to be set in a 1950s boardroom!
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