Princess Ida

I was delighted to be invited once again to review a production by Hornby Occasionals and see what they could do with a lesser-known show from the Gilbert and Sullivan repertoire, Princess Ida - a three act operetta featuring comedy, crossdressing, fight scenes and a resolution at the end.

While some local societies have taken the approach of rearranging the three acts into two, Hornby stuck with the script and I think this is less jarring overall, and is what the writers intended.

The principals clearly put a lot of time and effort into the show.  Angela Towers gave an assured performance as Princess Ida, with clear diction, good singing voice and a well developed character.   Jo Neville-Smith and Becca Dyson played the parts of Lady Blanche and Lady Psyche, two professors of the University, with conviction.  Rachel Mercer played Lady Blanches daughter, Melissa, and very much looked at ease in the part.

From the men’s side, we had King Hildebrand competently played by John Simmons and the grizzly King Gama played with grumpy conviction by John Reid.  I enjoyed these interpretations, but I would have liked John to relax into the role a little more - I think he had some more to give us in this role.  In his demanding song, “If You Give Me Your Attention”, his anger didn’t really work for me, and would be something to work on in order to make this character really shine.

The trio of Hilarion, Cyril and Florian were played by Chris Hall, Tom Beck and George Leathard.  They clearly enjoyed their high jinx and japeries and gave good performances, both in their acting and singing.  I did feel that their scene breaking into the castle and then hastily dressing up could have done with a little work to get some of the story telling just right.  For instance, it felt that two of the three were busy dressing up before the idea to do it had even been conceived.

There were some lovely musical moments in this show.  I particularly enjoyed the chorus numbers, with “Merrily Ring The Luncheon Bell” and “From The Distant Panorama” being particularly well performed.  The chorus worked well together and produced a lovely sound, with plenty of animated faces and strong reactions but I feel that people were rather placed in specific positions and could have done with some movement here and there. A little work on making some of the chorus scenes a little less static would have helped here.

I have mentioned a few instances within this review where I think a little more work could be done, and I think these would help with “telling the story”.  I felt the singing was generally strong throughout but perhaps a little more development or time was needed on some of the acting and some of the character development.  I don’t doubt that a lot of this will have been down to time constraints and other elements during the pandemic.  However, the main structure of the production was there and G&S fans will have really enjoyed the show from these dedicated performers. 

The staging of this show was simple but effective with plain flats to illustrate each scene.  The set was carefully made and fit perfectly and it’s clear that a lot of work had gone into it. The only oddity was that my eye was drawn to a horse in mid-gallop in the middle of one flat.  The lighting was simple, with no one left in the gloom.  Sound was by actors’ vocal projection, as is customary with many G&S productions, and the accompaniment was from a fabulous multi-piece orchestra who were worth the ticket price alone.

It’s been a trying time for all of us in pursuing our amateur theatrical hobby, and I think it’s fantastic to see societies getting back on their feet.  This is especially true of some of the smaller societies who need to work hard to engage a small cast in their production in trying circumstances.  I applaud the work this group have done in getting this show to the stage, mere months after the Covid 19 pandemic, and I do not underestimate the effect that this must have had on the cast and crew. 

Well done to director David Towers for bringing this together and getting Hornby back together after the hiatus, and well done to Musical Director, Richard Bromley for his cast’s singing and super orchestra.

Thank you Hornby, for your invite and hospitality.

 

 

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