I do wonder where on earth Chris Monks
gets the ideas for his radical adaptations of classic light operas. Two
years ago the Orange Tree invited him to revive his version of Gilbert
& Sullivan's
The Mikado,
set in a local cricket club, and this is now followed by his take on
The Pirates Of Penzance, in
which... well, if I mention that two of the brigands here are known as
Mr Turquoise and Mr Lime, you can infer both the Tarantinesque look of
the crew and that they are no more successful as mobsters than
G&S's tender-hearted plunderers normally are. Young Frederic's
graduation from his apprenticeship is marked by the ceremonial
presentation of his very own shades and shooter, before he disavows
both their company and Julie Jupp's mutton-dressed-in-leopard-print
nurse.
In contrast, the daughters of Major-General Stanley are first seen in
sturdy trainers and Lycra, Outward Bound-ly abseiling down from the
theatre's gallery... except for Philippa Stanton's bookish Mabel, who
is every inch the repressed but secretly torrid librarian type; it is
inevitable that during their big Act Two duet, Frederic (Stephen
Carlile) will tenderly remove Mabel's spectacles, and equally
inevitable that she will then be unable to see him as she implores him
to stay. The Major-General himself makes his first entrance in wetsuit
and flippers; the more or less mandatory rewrite of his
self-congratulatory number ("I am the very model...") includes
references to "High Court judges and their sexual proclivities" and, in
a not very topical example, the films rather than the politics of Arnie
[
sic] Schwarzenegger.
When reviewing Monks'
Mikado,
I opined that it was terribly inventively staged but never remotely
explored the reasons for being reimagined in this way. The same is true
here, although on this occasion the latter point bothers me far less.
Monks uses the whole of the theatre space, and strikes some notes that
are both topical – turning the police into privatised security guards –
and absurd – disguising a pair of them as a sandcastle and a Li-Lo
respectively. Best of all, only one of the cast of eleven mistakenly
uses the "head-voice" of contemporary music theatre when singing
operetta. The most enjoyable alternative Christmas offering I have seen
this year.
Written for the Financial
Times.