The Gondoliers
WS Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
Illyria
Directed by Oliver Gray
Fowlmere Village Hall, Cambs and touring
Star rating: 3.5
Yes, you really can mount a G&S opera with a cast of only six and make it vibrant for an audience who are mostly new to the piece. Oliver Gray, who founded Illyria 32 years ago, knows exactly how to cast multi-talented performers able to hop in and out of roles and costumes at high speed. He is also very good indeed making the best possible use of a bijoux playing space the size of a mediaeval cart carrying strolling players.
The open space around Fowlmere Village Hall, it has to be said, is not an ideal venue (although there’s plenty of parking and good loos) because it’s the village recreation ground and the show had to share it with a noisy mini skate board park and other distractions. The cast, however, as Illyria casts always do, rose to the challenge and maintained energetic momentum to the last.
If you play, G&S on a small scale you can hear every word – and WS Gilbert is very funny – along with every delicious harmony in the choruses, quartets, trios and duets, Bravo to all especially to Richard Healey for some imaginative arranging.
Casting a female (Naomi Halliday who also doubles as a spectacularly slimy Grand Inquisitor) to play Luiz, the drummer who turns out to be the lost king, means that you have to do nifty things with keys to make the duets with Casilda (Emma Clare) work. Most of it comes off although Clare misses some of her highest notes.
The satirical story of two Republican Gondoliers who find that one of them, – but no one knows which – is the King of Barataria, is as topical as it ever was. And Oliver Gray’s topical updates for 2024 are fun especially in “A Regular Royal Queen”.
Alex Layfield, in his first professional acting role, excels as Guiseppe, singing impeccably and playing well off Ben Osland who plays Marco. The handstand moment in their second act duet is quite something. Sarah Pugh sings exceptionally well as Tessa too. And Rosie Zeidler brings lovely physicality to the cowardly, self-important Duke of Plaza Toro as well as finding feisty sweetness in Gianetta. And every one of them has projectile ability to light up the stage.
I wasn’t keen on Healey’s decision to rework the music fairground style although that’s probably just personal taste. Sullivan’s music has long been a popular choice for carousels, after all. Moreover I appreciate the tight succinctness of this show given the mixed audience (and, at the performance I saw, rain with more threatening). I was sorry, though, that cuts include “My Papa, he has two horses”, “I am a courtier grave and serious” and “Small titles and orders”. On the other hand, Healey has ingeniously created/included a few extra bits of music to accommodate role changes and that is seamlessly slick.