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The Theatreguide.London Review
Patience
Union
Theatre February-March 2012
On top of running one of the most ambitious and accomplished fringe theatres, Sasha Regan has developed a cottage industry of all-male Gilbert and Sullivan productions that delightfully capture the spirit of G&S while adding exactly enough – and never too much – of the added fun of camp.
Patience may not be as well-known or hit-filled as Regan's previous successes with Iolanthe and The Pirates of Penzance (by which I mean I didn't know it), but it is just as inventively done and just as much fun.
Gilbert
began with the idea of satirising the aesthetic movement (think Oscar
Wilde), but the satire is so gentle and so balanced with affection as to
wind up perilously close to celebration, if not of the movement, then at
least of the innocence and good intentions of its adherents.
(So blunted is the satire that the Katisha figure, the lustful older woman, is actually treated with sympathy and given one of the sweetest songs with which to mourn the passing of time.)
The typically silly plot has two self-styled poets wooing the same country lass, Patience, while bathing in the adoration of what Gilbert would have called groupies if he knew the word. Meanwhile, Patience has decided that true love must involve sacrifice, so she can't pick the wooer she prefers because that would be too easy.
Factor in a troop of dragoons (because we need something to do with the male chorus) who are in love with the maidens adoring the poets, stir very gently, and you have Patience.
To which Sasha Regan adds casting men in all the roles. Regan is so adept at casting and directing her male actresses that we instantly accept the device and relate to the chorus of love-sick maidens as somewhat gawky short-haired girls.
Their soprano voices are rarely harsh or artificial, and one of the nicer jokes of the production has the maidens dance offstage to provide the deep-voiced backing for the dragoons who come on.
Another particular delight that is a Regan trademark is the individualising of every chorus member, so that however smoothly they sing and move together, each has his/her own personality. Drew McOnie's choreography builds on this, allowing each individual a slight personality-based variation on the group movements.
Dominic Brewer and Stiofan O'Doherty are each ridiculous and adorable in equal measure as the two poseurs, while Edward Charles Bernstone anchors the play in some hint of reality with a natural and uncampy portrayal of sweet and simple Patience.
Gerald Berkowitz
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Review - Patience - Union Theatre 2012