The Gondoliers

The term's Gilbert and Sullivan Operetta rolled around once more: this time it was the sparkling Venice-set Gondoliers. And as this was Michaelmas Term, we were in the king of all theatres - the Moser Theatre/Badminton Court at Wadham College. Well in a way the court markings became useful as areas such as the 'dialogue square' and 'lines of sight' were clearly delineated. 3 nights of fun filled excitement. The first night had about a 2/3 crowd who were a little slow to get going but seemed to warm to us by the end; the second evening was a full house who must have taken some E^C (a post written almost a year ago now) snuff, or perhaps they were just swept away by our majesty, but they laughed at anything and everything and the applause was raucous in the least. Thus it was tough to improve for the final night, but with a full house + some extra chairs dragged out to accommodate the punters who wanted to catch a glimpse of history, it was always going to be a high-octane performance.

I made the remark that we are better than Covent Garden or even, the Sydney Opera House in that they NEVER sell more tickets than they have seats, or at least, they never need to drag out extra chairs. When I extended this notion to us getting a slice of the juicy profits, support waned from those in charge.

First: a plot

Roughly: Barataria, a ficticious dominion near(?) Spain had a king, the king died, his son was smuggled to Venice, but the son was mixed up with a gondolier's son. Now no one knows who is the king, good times ensue, and it is all resolved with much happiness (and unlike recent Bible readings, without 'weeping and gnashing of teeth'.)

Thither:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gondoliers

for more details.


I was Don Alhambra del Bolero - the Grand Inquisitor of Spain. With a beretta (the hat, not the pistol type) and a £5 Cornmarket Street Pashmina which passed as a cincture, along with a maverick cassock, I brought good times hither and yon.

And of course, there are pictures:

The Don - keeping the inquisition real and scoring 309 in one day at Headingley.

My line was... 'distinctly jimp'... and then I got my hand slapped.

Here was were we made transcendent comedy with the line, 'we didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition'.


A moment of Catholic empathy.

Here was when I regailed them with tales of how I stole the prince: in my mind, the greatest bass-baritone song in the Gilbert and Sullivan canon. Or cannon, if you prefer.
The finale. I will prop up some colourful ones of the chorus and our after party delights in due course. But now, it is time to return to the hard man's working game.