There’s certainly been a lot of Gilbert and Sullivan around lately, much of it, like this production of one of the duo’s lesser-known operettas, with all-male casts.
Patience is the one that satirises the aesthetic movement, the cult of beauty followed by the likes of Whistler, Morris and of course Wilde. By the time Patience premiered in 1881 Oscar and his poetry were the talk of London society; audiences would have appreciated the fragile young creatures Reginald Bunthorne and Archibald Grosvenor (the Grosvenor Gallery was a hub for aesthetes), who moon around reciting their verse while maidens swoon at their feet.
Although they get a duet that implies they’d be happier gazing at their own reflections, both poets profess love for virginal milkmaid Patience. Who will win her? Meanwhile the randy soldiers are in town and in a desperate attempt to woo the other maidens adopt aesthetic poses themselves. It’s not Chekhov.
Sasha Regan’s interpretation uses a bare stage (apart from a stylised tree), a pianist and inventive choreography by Drew McOnie. Chief gimmick, however, is that the “twenty lovesick maidens” are played by blokes.
As in Regan’s previous G&S shows, the men don’t wear wigs or false bosoms. All they have to represent femininity, apart from prim skirts and cardigans, are their acting and singing skills. It’s certainly impressive that they have such strong falsetto voices.
In all cases the performances are closer to Tootsie than Titti. Edward Charles Bernstone is so charmingly winsome as Patience that it’s almost possible to forget he’s a man. He and the dark and handsome Stiofàn O’Doherty as Grosvenor make a lovely couple.
On the whole, however, you can’t help feeling that this joke’s gone on long enough. Regan’s Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado and HMS Pinafore had their well-known scores to fall back on. Just over a year ago Iolanthe succeeded because of its wildly imaginative fairyland setting.
But Patience feels as though the barrel’s being scraped. It has only one hit (“So go to him and say to him”) and you’ve almost got to have visited the V&A’s aestheticism exhibition to understand the references. A fun evening but not a rollicking one.
• PATIENCE: Union Theatre, 204 Union Street, SE1. Runs Tue-Sat at 7.30pm, Sun at 2pm and 6pm until 10th March.
• Box office: 020 7261 9876 or www.uniontheatre.biz
