The Gondoliers

Three venues in just over a week is the annual challenge this friendly society sets itself and every year they are up to it, this being no exception.

Sub-titled The King of Barataria the show tells the story of Giuseppe and Marco who are Venetian gondoliers and who are told that one of them is the heir to the throne due to an identity mistake when they were young.  How they sort the problem out is fun and enjoyable.

The society has managed to attract some younger members to the cast which is good for the society’s future and it is especially encouraging that these include some younger men who can sing, act and move.

Marco was played by Stuart Sellens and Giuseppe by Peter Jonas and both gave very professional performances getting the humour across nicely and allowing us to hear every word of songs and dialogue.  Stuart’s rendition of ‘Take a pair of sparkling eyes’ was lovely.

Strongly working opposite them were Fiona Constantine as Gianetta and Zoe Sellens as Tessa.  Both had super voices and personalities and the quartet ‘In a contemplative fashion’ was excellent.

I always enjoy Alice Giblin whose lovely voice as Casilda was very much to the fore and it’s just a shame that she wasn’t on stage more in this show.  Her duets with Peter Perkins (Luis), who was powerful, were wonderful.

For me, Val Marshall gave the best performance I have seen from her as The Duchess of Plaza-Toro and she gave us some delightful facial expressions during her portrayal.  I enjoyed The Duke of Plaza-Toro who was extremely well played by Chris Charlton Mathews and I was also highly impressed with Joseph Marshall as an imposing Grand Inquisitor, Don Alhambra Del Bolero, his biggest part so far.

There were some nicely presented minor role performances and some splendid chorus singing through the performance, after an admittedly stodgy start, and it was accompanied by The Kingston Savoy Orchestra whose MD took the music at a great pace.  Movement was kept very traditional, as was the whole production, and a simple set worked well on a small stage.  Costumes were, as always, really good and colourful.

G&S is alive and kicking in the hands of this society.

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