Iolanthe

Synopsis

A satire on the Parliament of the day (or of today!) - fantasy and fact collide in this, one of Gilbert and Sullivan's most popular operettas. Iolanthe, a fairy, has been banished for marrying a mortal. Her son, Strephon is in love with Phyllis a Ward of Court. The entire House of Lords has also fallen for Phyllis but she declines to marry a peer. The fairies persuade their queen to pardon Iolanthe. She returns and is reunited with her son. The peers and Phyllis misinterpret the scene and believe that Strephon is being unfaithful. The fairies take revenge by sending Strephon to Parliament with astonishing results.

Our Review:

4 April 2011

Last November’s Union, Southwark, revival of Iolanthe has now moved east into Wilton’s, and it’s another humdinger from director Sasha Regan and her all-male company, with superb musical direction (and playing) by Christopher Mundy at his grand piano.

The eerie, enchanted atmosphere of Wilton’s is even more suited to this production than it was to its all-male Gilbert and Sullivan predecessor, The Pirates of Penzance; for Regan’s big idea is to have the fairies and the House of Lords animated by the one bunch of public school boys tumbling out of the wardrobe in improvised gossamer wings and corsets, or else in dressing gowns and top hats.

It’s as though the old theatre comes alive in the spirit of invention, and after-dark improvisation. The gallery echoes with distant choruses, entrances are made through the audience, the cast rush hither and thither like the sprites in A Mids...