Patience

Patience or Bunthorne’s Bride is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W.S. Sullivan. It is a satire that pits the straight-laced ideals of the Victorian era against the passions and indulgences of the aesthetic movement of the 1870’s and 80’s. It tells of the maidens in a village who are besotted with Reginald Bunthorne, a handsome poet, but he has only eyes for the simple milkmaid, Patience, who knows nothing of love, until Archibald Grosvenor, another poet and a childhood friend turns up but he turns out to be perfect so Patience rejects him in favour of Bunthorne. In the meantime the local troop of Dragoons (decidedly non-poetic) that were meant to marry the village maidens find themselves dismayed and perplexed by their sudden loss of prospects.

There is no stage at the centre and the set consisted of a white back-cloth, stone-wall painted flats, a raised dais, two benches, a small picket fence and a signpost indicating the way to the castle and to the village and on a screen was a sign for the Dairy, with two ‘churns’ standing outside. Very simple, but proved to be quite adequate.

The performance started with a piano intro and we saw a ‘man’ (who proved to be Reginald) sitting behind the picket fence and Lady Jane knocking on a supposed door and when there was no acknowledgement she proceeded to use a broom, again, to no avail. She was then joined by Lady Angela, Lady Saphir, Lady Ella  and the eight members of the Chorus of Rapturous Maidens who all quite beautifully sang “Twenty love-sick maidens we”, well there weren’t twenty of them - but who’s counting!! 

The Maidens were Susan Devaney, Katie Henwood, Sue Morgan, Gabby Wood, Sue Kirwan, Lelsey Kraushaar, Pauline Revill and Anne Stokes and all wore gorgeous dresses and had flowers in their hair. Their harmonious singing of all their songs was exemplary and so enthusiastically delivered and they were always so attentive and reactive to the various scenarios. The magnificently attired Dragoon Guards in their red and black uniforms with white-plumed helmets and knee-high boots were Mike Bradshaw, Bob Hingston, Justin Keeley, Chris Kraushaar and Albert Thomas and along with their officers so wonderfully sang ‘The Soldiers of our Queen’ as they so splendidly marched around, and again, all the singing of their many songs was just top-notch as were their gesticulative and animated antics. Rachel Callen was delightful as Patience. She has a lovely soprano singing voice reaching the high notes effortlessly and she captured the innocent naivety of the character perfectly but also managed to portray the moral dilemma she faced when trying to figure out what ‘love’ is. Jeremy Crane was very forthright as the poet Reginald Bunthorne who is adored by the Rapturous Maidens, but is in love with Patience. He has such a powerful singing and speaking voice enabling him to so melodramatically and emotionally deliver the perceived attributes of the character but sadly and heartbreakingly he was finally rejected. Stephen Chaytow was wonderful as Archibald Grosvenor, Patience’s childhood playmate, now a poet. He was so over-the-top, so self-assured and exuberant and the arrogance and egotistical vanity of the character was just so brilliantly portrayed. He has a fine singing voice, the song ‘A magnet hung in a hardware shop’ with the Maidens was so meaningful delivered as was the duet with Bunthorne ‘When I go out of door’. As Colonel Calverley Nic Wilson was just superb. He has such a wonderful charismatic stage presence and in particular, his eloquent delivery of ‘If you want a receipt for that popular mystery’ was just sublime. Another super performance came from Max Taylor as Lieutenant, The Duke of Dunstable. Max has such an outstanding tenor voice which was very much in evidence. He really brought out the humour in the role even managing an ‘honourable’ mention of the famous Bakewell Pudding! David Stokes gave excellent support as Major Murgatroyd. A highlight moment was when Nic, Max and David, aka the Colonel, the Duke and the Major, so brilliantly sang ’It’s clear that mediaeval art’. They each held a flower and now wore very colourful tunic tops and foppish berets and their antics and ‘poses’ as they manoevered about the ‘dais’ were hilarious. Anne Flint was most refined and very upperclass as Lady Angela her singing of ‘Long years ago, fourteen maybe’ along with Patience was divine. Also giving excellent support was Maggie Keely as the besotted Lady Saphir and Helen Taylor as Lady Ella. Liz McKenzie excelled as Lady Jane, she totally brought out the humour in the role as well as the feistiness and her delivery of the sad sentiments that went with her unrequited love when she sang ‘Sad is that woman’s lot’ was so moving. The final song ‘After much debate internal’, with Archibald now in a striking blazer, shirt tie and Boater and the Maidens wearing lovely straw hats together with the magnificent Dragoons, all the final ‘love’ choices were made and poor Bunthorne is left on his own, looking all forlorn.

Throughout, the singing and acting by the main characters and that by the Maidens and Dragoons was exceptional and together with the fabulous costumes, the simple set, good lighting and the terrific accompaniment by Chris Flint, this was indeed an uplifting and entertaining production. Congratulations to Musical Director Melanie Gilbert to Producer Max Taylor, to Accompanist Chris Flint, to Producer’s Assistant and Costume Coordinator Helen Taylor and to everyone else involved. Also, many thanks to the very warm welcome that I received from the Front of House Team.

© NODA CIO.  All rights reserved 

 

 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.