Mostly G & S Present: Patience

How often do we see folks around us consumed with a new fad to the exclusion of all else? This is the behaviour parodied by Gilbert & Sullivan in their sixth opera, PATIENCE. Their target, back in the 1880s, was the ‘Aesthetic Movement’ whose leading figures were Swinburne, Whistler and Wilde, but the excesses and fickle changes of loyalty portrayed are just as relevant nowadays.

The story concerns the rivalry of Reginald Bunthorne (a Fleshly poet) and Archibald Grosvenor (an Idyllic poet). Both are pursuing the local milkmaid, Patience. She is the one clear-sighted person whose simple truthful remarks highlight the folly of the extreme behaviour on display. It is only she who dares describe the Ladies’ rapturous love for Bunthorne as ‘mad’ and his poetry as ‘nonsense’.

However, in the search for pure love Patience agrees to accept Bunthorne. The Ladies in an instant swap their affection back to the Dragoons to whom they have been previously engaged, before suddenly falling just as madly in love with Grosvenor.

How does this tangled plot resolve and who in the end will be Bunthorne’s Bride? Book early to be sure of finding out the answer and you will be rewarded with Sullivan’s glorious music and Gilbert’s sharpest satire.