Theatre News

After Pirates & Iolanthe, Union stages all-male Patience

| Off-West End |

18 January 2012

Following its Whatsonstage.com award winning production of The Pirates of Penzance and last year’s Iolanthe, the Union Theatre in Southwark is staging another all-male interpretation of a Gilbert and Sullivan classic, Patience.

The new production, which opens on 17 February (previews from 15 February), will be directed by Union artistic director Sasha Regan, with choreography by Drew McOnie, musical direction by Michael England and design by Kingsley Hall.

A satire on the British aesthetic movement of the 1870’s. Patience (or Bunthorne’s Bride) is billed as “the story of coy lovers, and ridiculous poetic jousting for the attention of a pretty young milkmaid who has no interest in poetry, all performed with typically British humour and sparkling music”.

The cast includes: Edward Bernstone, Stiofan O’Doherty, Dominic Brewer, Sean Quigley, Matthew James Willis, Thomas Heard, Edward Simpson, James Lacey, Mark Gillon, Matthew Markwick, Oliver Metcalfe, William Whelton, Daniel Bartlett, Raymond Tait, Jarred Page and Gareth Andrews.

Patience runs at the Union until 10 March 2012 (both The Pirates of Penzance and Iolanthe subsequently transferred to Wilton’s Music Hall). Pirates, which won the 2010 Whatsonstage.com Award for Best Off-West End production, will tour to Australia later this year.