10 -15 July
Director Sasha Regan has said ‘The beauty of working on an opera is the freedom as a director to reinvent the work.’ In this production of The Mikado that reinvention takes the form of a major relocation, both in time and place. The 1885 original gently mocked the fad for all things Oriental that was being embraced by London society, and thus the setting is a comic version of Japan. There was no sense that Japan itself was being held up for ridicule, for the intended target of the mockery was the very British passion for pointless bureaucracy, with all its impenetrable rules and regulations. However, in our own more culturally sensitive times it might be thought inappropriate to stage a show set in a Japanese town called Titipu, where flirting carries the death penalty and there are characters with naughtily suggestive names like Yum-Yum and Nanki-Poo. This all-male version brings the story much closer to home, to a boys’ campsite of the 1950s. A dressing-up box is found, and the campers quickly decide to perform The Mikado. They do so in anglicised form, where Nanki-Poo is ‘Bertie Hugh’, Yum-Yum is ‘Violet Plumb’, and Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner, is ‘Mr Cocoa’.
Other than D’Oyly Carte diehards, those already familiar with this operetta may find this new scenario to be a clever idea that adds an extra dose of comic pastiche. There is certainly a great deal of fun to be had as the boys find inventive ways to use their pots and pans and washing lines as props. The Lord High Executioner (David McKechnie – excellent) delivers his famous ‘little list’ by reading it from a roll of toilet paper. But for newcomers there is a danger that the extra layer of unreality will lead to confusion. Male actors playing scouts who themselves are playing male and female characters is a distractingly complicated set-up. Consequently, in the first act it can take a while to tune in to precisely what is going on, particularly as in the choral sequences not all of Gilbert’s witty lyrics are delivered with crystal clarity. However, the well-known numbers such as Three Little Maids From School Are We are sung splendidly, with Anto Buckley providing characterful piano accompaniment. Bertie (Oliver Bradley-Taylor) and Violet (Sam Kipling) make a winsome romantic couple, with Kipling’s falsetto soaring to impressive heights.
The second act has greater coherence and begins with a rather beautiful, tableau-like scene of the ‘ladies’ at their toilette. The loveliness of the scene soon gives way to comedy, as legs are shaved and waxing leads to painful wincing. A later highlight is Mr Cocoa’s wooing of the formidable bicycle-riding spinster Kitty Shaw (Christopher Hewitt). This scene, ‘tit-willow’ and all, is both touching and ridiculous by turns, and very much in the spirit of the original. Further ridiculousness is supplied by Lewis Kennedy’s megaphone-wielding Mikado.
The Gilbert and Sullivan oeuvre is Marmite stuff. There are passionate adherents, but others find it irretrievably stuck in its own time, and well past its sell-by date. Sasha Regan’s Mikado seeks to reinvigorate the genre by junking the Victoriana, downplaying the social satire, and focusing more on the absurdities of plot and character. In that aim she is ably supported by the wittiness of Adam Haigh’s choreography and the comedic skills of her talented cast. Will she win new converts? Perhaps she will, perhaps not, but those already fond of The Mikado will find this a fresh and imaginative interpretation of an old favourite.
★★★☆☆ Mike Whitton, 11 July 2023
Photo credit: Mark Senior
