H.M.S. Pinafore

H.M.S. Pinafore is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and opened at the Opera Comique in London in 1878. The story takes place aboard the Royal Navy ship HMS Pinafore. The Captain’s daughter, Josephine, is in love with a lower-class sailor, Ralph Rackstraw, although her father intends her to marry Sir Joseph Porter, the First Lord of the Admiralty. She abides by her father’s wishes at first, but Sir Joseph’s advocacy of the equality of humankind encourages Ralph and Josephine to overturn conventional social order and so declare their love for each other and eventually plan to elope. The Captain discovers this plan but a ‘surprise disclosure’ by Buttercup, dramatically changes things!!

PB Theatricals Youth Theatre specialise in casting, rehearsing and performing G&S operettas within a week. Last week I saw Princess Ida, their Young Adult Production, and tonight I am seeing their Youth Production, H.M.S Pinafore, which again, like Princess Ida, will be performed for one night at two different venues. The set was quite simple with black curtained flats around the small performance area. In the centre, at the back, was a ship’s ‘bridge’ on a raised dais in front of a blue lit black cloth and barrels and blocks of various sizes were placed around the area. There was a lovely addition of flying seagulls and a banner was strung from side to side displaying different flags and we deduced, from later seeing an article in the programme “Spelling with Flags!”, that they did in fact spell out something - but sorry, we didn’t manage to solve it. 

The lively opening number “We sail the ocean blue” saw seven well-dressed sailors in black trousers, striped tops and straw hats swabbing the decks in anticipation of the arrival on board of Sir Joseph Porter KCB. Adam Kingston was brilliant in this role. His outlandish mannerisms, helped by an extremely flamboyant outfit, were so over-the-top and together with his self-assured, confident and great stage presence he really gave a very spirited portrayal of the arrogance, pomposity and egotistical nature of Sir Joseph and his fantastic gestures and facial expressions and his innate grasp of comedy (especially at ad-libbing) were just outstanding. His singing and delivery of ’When I was a lad” was super as was his participation in “Never mind the why and wherefore” with Josephine and the Captain. During this he kept ‘nipping’ off then returning, firstly bedecked in a cloak and crown, then as a Pirate and lastly as the Mikado whilst the Captain and Josephine did a merry dance. The tempo proceeded to quicken so that, in the end, they all had to plead with the pianist to stop! It was an exceptionally funny and so well executed number but by the end all three of the were literally out of breath. Another superb performance came from Karl Morewood as Captain Corcoran. He was so well attired, as befitted his position, and he totally captured the various nuances of the role splendidly from his commanding position as the Captain, wonderfully singing “I am the Captain of the Pinafore”, to showing anger and deftly managing to show deference to Sir Joseph but also, his comedic antics were so well achieved. What a tremendous tenor voice came from Tom Hale as Ralph Rickshaw. He was perfect in the role capturing the love-lorn characteristics so well and his singing was exquisite, he so effortlessly and unbelievably reached the high notes especially in “The nightingale’ and in his duet with Josephine “Refrain, audacious tar”. There was a good rapport between himself and Josephine. The conniving, blunt and spiteful villain that is Dick Deadeye was strongly played by Donald Mace his powerful singing and acting were sublime. The more pleasing and friendly character, Bill Bobstay (Boatswain), was equally well played by Max Wood, he too has an excellent singing voice. A most impressive and delightful portrayal came from Lie Jennings as Josephine. It was hard to believe that such a fabulous and mature sounding voice came from one so young which was so apparent in all of Josephine’s many songs where the extremely high notes were so impressively reached with such ease. Couple this with fine acting and it was indeed a top-notch performance. Fern Burkinshaw was most endearing as Little Buttercup she captured the warmth and caring nature of the character so well and the final revealing of the secret she had been keeping for so many years did indeed cause quite a rumpus. An enthusiastic and quite lively performance came from Oli Davey as Cousin Hebe. The Chorus of Sailors and Sir Joseph’s relatives gave wonderful, enthusiastic and exuberant support with their impressive interactions and fine harmonious singing. They were - Katy Beale, Greta Buckler, Freya Carter, Belle Green, Sam Higginbottom, Rihannah Lomas, Lauren Lomas, Edward Mason (who was really young and so small), Philippa Morewood, Connie Oxbury, Nellie Padmore-Dunk, Benedict Parkin, Jack Robinson and Halle Thompson. The ladies were all dressed in red skirts, white blouses with different coloured cummerbunds and wore boaters. 

All the singing, acting and choregraphed moves by the principals (all of them being under 18 years of age) and by the ‘ensemble’ were just terrific and it was quite unbelievable that such a young cast could deliver a G&S performance of such a high standard. Well-deserved congratulations must go to Director Pamela Leighton-Bilik, to Musical Director Martin Thiselton (also the magnificent accompanist), to James Gillet for brandishing the baton, to Angela Robinson for the stunning costumes, to Producer Alan Bamber, to the exceptional cast and indeed to everyone else involved. It is such a joy to witness young people so enthusiastically involved in the wonderful world of G&S and every accolade must go to the team at PB Theatricals for nurturing and enabling this to happen. Many thanks also, for the warm welcome that I received.

© NODA CIO.  All rights reserved 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.