I agree with most of the previous review's sentiments although the performance I saw last night was in Merton Chapel. This meant that the audience had to watch most of the performance from side-on. This took a little getting used too but most of the lead players coped well with this problem.

My family and I had a great time and left feeling rather jolly. Christopher Milton was definitely the most entertaining and accomplished but there were other strong performances from Zosia Kuczynska and Katherine Fairhurst. I thought the make-up and props added a humourous ad hoc impression that seems to work in Gilbert and Sullivan!

Great fun!

Simon Rollanger 23 Feb 2008

I sat through tonight’s performance of Patience by Gilbert and Sullivan with great amusement and enjoyment. After seeing this society’s recent productions of The Gondoliers and Utopia Limited I had high expectations that in some senses were fulfilled and in others were left wanting.

Initially I must say that the production is great fun; all the cast work hard together to create an amusing and colourful scene; the natural humour of Gilbert’s script still seems current and entertaining; whilst Sullivan’s melodies remain fresh and catchy. The venue however did somewhat let the production down. I have seen many orchestral concerts in the Wesley Memorial Church where the natural tiered stage lends itself to a static concert. For a theatrical performance, on the other hand, the stage does not seem to deliver all that the production demands of it. The lighting, especially during the first act, meant that the cast’s faces were largely cast in shadow and that the light flooded the rather obsolete back half of the stage. The chairs are placed curiously back from the front of the stage area (which rarely contained the cast no doubt due to their awareness of the lighting difficulties) so that, on occasion, the action seems rather remote and distant.

The cast are a strong one. Zosia Kuczynska’s soaring soprano beautifully matched her playful characterisation of the title role. Gilbert seems to have been rather cruel to his female leads in providing them with seeming naivety in the face of every situation; however tonight Zosia Kuczynska avoided the traps that would have found her part stilted and rather dull. The three officers of the soldiers' regiment all had good voices and were particularly entertaining when they became aesthetic poets in the second half. David Jones, as the Colonel, had a particularly tricky song near the opening in which some of the words got rather lost in the mix, and the times when his face did emerge from the shadows it revealed rather bizarre make-up (I presume this is meant to represent his advanced age?!). Gail Trimble as Lady Angela and Diana Jeske as Lady Saphir seemed suited to their rather vapid characters and sang well – although, again, sometimes failing to be heard clearly. (This was especially true of the song when Angela sings a duet with Patience where the difference between their voices was very apparent). Katherine Fairhurst as the solid Lady Jane was suitably abrupt in manner and her song, at the opening of act two, provided a moment of real pathos and reflection. The poet Grosvenor, played by Graham Lunn, was also highly entertaining and coped admirably with the smug nature of his character. His song about a magnet and milk churn was particularly comical despite the tin-foil props used to indicate the aforementioned items. The true star of the show, however, was most certainly Chris Milton as Reginald Bunthorne. From his initial entrance he dominated the space and those around him with a constant array of facial expressions that meant that he looked totally engaged with the action around him. His spoken dialogue was delivered meaningfully but yet hilariously, his ridiculous poem recitations being a particular delight. His singing was clear and always enunciated and projected to perfection and even contained a great deal more of the melodic elements than the famous D’Oyly Carte recording with John Reed.

The chorus work was good although not as good as I had hoped following the exceptional choral singing in the previous couple of shows from the society. The entries were often clumsy and the unaccompanied section of the act one finale was rather flat and lacking in expression. Overall the music seemed to be basically there but needed a greater degree of musical finesse to create a greater dynamic variety and expression. The direction by Lucy Matheson was literal but well handled with a fluidity of movement that keep the action moving even in Gilbert’s more static moments. (The soldiers' ‘Heavy Dragoon’ song was particularly visually stimulating. The costumes also looked stunning and aided both the period setting and the drama as a whole.

If you want to see an amusing Victorian operetta that will leave you feeling uplifted and amused, and which has good acting and singing then take yourself along to Patience this weekend.

Matthew Tanner 22 Feb 2008