Director’s Notes
Welcome to the NSLOS’ production of Patience! I have been enthralled by the work of Gilbert & Sullivan since the age of 12, when my father first played for me a recording of The Pirates of Penzance – on records, if you remember them. For my next birthday, I asked for the record sets of HMS Pinafore and The Mikado, and, for many birthdays following, a new, D'Oyly Carte boxed-set was always one of my presents. By the time I was sixteen, I owned a complete set of G&S records, likely pointing to an obsessive interest in these masters of the English operetta stage, but, NONETHELESS, I am almost certain that my copy of Patience has been played only once. This satire of the Aesthetic Poetry movement of the 1870's didn't seem to grab me as a young man, nor has it grabbed many others since the knowledge of its targets faded from the public mind. A sad fate for a show that, when it first closed in 1882, had become the longest-running piece of English Musical Theatre in history. These days, I am certainly older, possibly even wiser, and this chance to revel in the world of Patience has revealed an exquisitely tuneful and frequently hilarious operetta, which deserves to be shared with a new generation of theatre-goers. And so, tonight we aim to crack open that dusty score, and let Patience, Bunthorne and their associates dance once again on the keyboard and the stage. We trust you will give them the welcome they deserve - Enjoy the show!
Matthew Bissett
Synopsis
ACT ONE
Reginald Bunthorne (a fleshly poet) is loved by 20 aesthetic maidens who carol at his door. Bunthorne, however, loves Patience, the village milkmaid. Meanwhile, the 35th. Dragoon Guards, who return to the scene of their former triumphs to be re-united with their fiancées, find that those ladies have become aesthetic and transferred their affections to Bunthorne.
Add to all this, Archibald Grosvenor (an idyllic poet) who reveals himself to Patience as her childhood sweetheart, and we have a confusing story of country folk. Poor Patience is totally confused. She doesn't like poetry, understand aestheticism or even know what love is! Having been told by Lady Angela that love must be unselfish, Patience decides that she ought to marry Bunthorne; the ladies then return to their Dragoons.
This potentially happy ending is upset by the appearance of Grosvenor, causing the maidens to desert the Dragoons yet again and all ends in even more confusion.
ACT TWO
Lady Jane (a mature, aesthetic maiden) is the only one who remains faithful to Bunthorne, the remainder being now totally devoted to Grosvenor. The officers of the Dragoon Guards decide that they must become aesthetic in order to win back their fiancées, and, in that, they are successful.
Lady Jane persuades Bunthorne to challenge Grosvenor on his own ground and to beat him on it, which he does. The dénouement brings one or two more surprises in a typically Gilbertian finale
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