ON SONG: Left to right, Fiona
Main as Yum-Yum,
Alison York as Peep-Bo and Abbie Mullen as a
Japanese dog. Picture: SANDY
YOUNG
This is a production which does not merely retain
faith in the desires of Gilbert, the librettist of the Savoy Operas.
It seeks to represent the first night production of The Mikado
using the original version which he changed subsequently . It's a
potentially dangerous policy given the popularity of the piece .
There’s no arguing, however, that the director, Alan Borthwick,
has succeeded in creating an audience-pleasing production. Mostly because
he hasn't been so hide-bound by the original as to exclude all possibility
of adding a few new jokes.
Not to mention the high standards of
the whole cast and orchestra, whose musical renditions of Sullivan’s score
rarely faltered. Although the issue of the volume of the singing by the
soloists did provide several moments of near catastrophe.
Quite
simply, The Mikado is great fun to watch. It’s got one of those convoluted
plots which when you first see it keeps you right on your toes.
Nanki-Poo is a poor wandering minstrel, who returns to the town of
Titipu on hearing that his beloved, the fickle and heartless Yum-Yum, is
free to marry him after the execution of her guardian, Ko-Ko for the crime
of flirting.
But in the time it has taken Nanki-Poo to travel back
Ko-Ko has not only been reprieved. He has also brought forward his
marriage to his ward and has been elevated from his status as a poor
tailor to Lord High Executioner, for reasons of highly spurious logic by
the bombastic Lord High Everything Else: Pooh-Bah.
The
blood-thirsty Mikado of Japan is not happy, however. He wants executions.
And plenty of them.
In fact, he wants one in Titipu within the
month or Ko-Ko himself will be up for the chop.
The solution is
obvious. Instead of committing suicide at the thought of seeing Yum-Yum
married to the hideous Ko-Ko, Nanki-Poo agrees to marry her and then be
beheaded at the end of the month.
With so much twisting and
turning, you need near-perfect enunciation to keep the plot going
smoothly. And with Neil French as Nanki-Poo, Ian Lawson as Pooh-Bah and
Ross Main as his right hand man, Pish-Tush, that was exactly what you got.
And the music moved along effortlessly under the direction of David Lyle.
However, the enunciation was only achieved with a lot of help from
on-stage microphones. Clear as the voices are, only Fiona Main as Yum-Yum
ever demonstrated that she had the volume to fill the hall without them.
Alan Borthwick’s directorial decisions were superb. The chorus
were given plenty of things to do rather than merely stand around singing.
And the set and costumes were bright and bold enough to get their own
round of applause.
Anyone who saw the Mike Leigh film about
Gilbert and Sullivan, Topsy Turvy, and thought that the Mikado might be
quite fun, will find ample proof in this production that they were right.
Run ends Saturday
