REVIEW: THE SORCERER by Gilbert and Sullivan at Wilton’s Music Hall until 15 June 2024

David Weir • 12 June 2024


‘comic opera at its very, very best’ ★★★★

 

The good ended happily, the bad unhappily, and that is what fiction means, said Oscar Wilde’s Miss Prism, and who can say fairer than that? It’s a dictum he could have borrowed from WS Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan who genially employ it throughout their work, including in this early and not-often played collaboration based on a Gilbert short story.

 

Not that there is anyone tremendously wicked in the village of Ploverleigh where squire’s son Alexis (Robin Bailey) is about to marry his true love Aline (Ellie Neate) until, twit that he is, he invites a dodgy sorcerer John Wellington Wells (Richard Stuart) to spread sweetness and light by dosing his fellow villagers with a love philtre that causes them to go head over heels for the first person they see after taking it. Midsummer Night’s Dream-style, complications ensue as the wrong people are attracted to each other, most hilariously in the case of dowdy Constance, played and sung for all she’s worth, and a little bit more, by a brilliant Meriel Cunningham, falling for the notary, a Plain Old Man (Hugo Herman-Wilson). When Aline herself falls in love with the vicar (Matthew Kellet, excellent), it’s time to unravel the knots.

 

The show’s a joy from the opening bars of David Eaton’s piano accompaniment – one of the many fantastic things about G+S being that even unfamiliar shows sound instantly as if you’ve known the songs for years.

 

The latish arrival of the plot and its rather perfunctory unravelling demonstrate that this is apprentice work for composer and writer. But the songs are all present and correct, words and music signifying nothing as joyously as can be done via solo, duet and patter song. There’s a slightly curious set design choice to place the action around a 1960s camper van where comedy working class mother Mrs Partlett (Rosie Strobell) dispenses tea and refreshment for the nuptials to come. Although this sits a little oddly next to the pretty traditional 19th century costuming and action of the show, it does look superb in the fantastic setting of Wilton’s and provides the perfect tea pot for distribution of the love potion.

 

Those who dislike G+S – I regret to say there are such people in the world, but suspect they’re just too cool to let on that they love it secretly when no-one’s watching – might remark on the lack of social commentary or edge in a production that foregrounds marriage and remaining within one’s social sphere when all is said and done. To do so, though, is to take a spade to a souffle. At its best, comic opera sends a happy audience home, untroubled by the world, and humming, singing or pirouetting to the songs it’s just heard beautifully sung, and this is comic opera at its very, very best.

 

Photography: William Knight

 

THE SORCERER by Gilbert and Sullivan at Wilton’s Music Hall 11 - 15 June 2024

Director: John Savournin (for Charles Court Opera)

Box Office: https://wiltons.org.uk/

 

Reviewer David Weir’s plays include Confessional (Oran Mor, Glasgow), Better Together (Jack Studio, London). Those and others performed across Scotland, Wales and England, and in Australia, Canada, South Korea, Switzerland and Belgium. Awards include Write Now Festival prize, Constance Cox award, SCDA best depiction of Scottish life, and twice Bruntwood longlisted.

 


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