Director’s Notes
Ruddigore is the eighth full-length operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan, first produced in 1887. Looking for a follow-up to the immensely successful production of 'The Mikado', Gilbert settled on a topsy-turvy take on Victorian domestic melodrama, a style of popular theatre that featured broadly-drawn iconic characters such as The Young Maiden and The Evil Baronet interacting in common village settings. Since that time, however, the strong emotions and morally certain universe of the form have been well-parodied on stage and particularly in early silent films, and those parodies have become a part of the modern understanding of the style. Directors of Ruddigore, then, are left trying to sort the actual melodrama from Gilbert's parody of it, and audiences are no longer in tune with the metatextual conversation between the two styles. Our tactic for replacing that particular stream of comedy has been to shovel as many jokes as humanly possible into the text. More jokes! More jokes! And so if you seek an historical representation of melodrama, seek elsewhere, but if you are content to have your humerous tickled, well... watch on!
Matthew Bissett
Synopsis
In the Cornish fishing village of Rederring, the professional bridesmaids are desperate for a wedding. Hannah explains that, because of the curse of the Murgatroyds, she cannot marry; Rose Maybud, the village belle, is waiting for Robin Oakapple to propose, but he is shy and says nothing! Robin’s shyness is partly because, although he is masquerading as a young farmer, he is really Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd, the bad baronet of Ruddigore, who has fled his inheritance to avoid having to commit a crime a day or perish in inconceivable agonies! The plot (as if not already thick enough!) thickens with the arrival of the breezy sailor, Dick Dauntless, Robin’s foster brother, who agrees to woo Rose on Robin’s behalf. Richard, however, on seeing the blooming Rose, decides to have her for himself. There follows some trading off between Richard, Robin and Rose (They are all rather selfish in their ways.) but Rose finally realizes that Robin is the better catch in material terms (She is quite a little gold-digger!). There now appears Mad Margaret, made mad by her rejection by yet another Murgatroyd, Sir Despard. She wanders aimlessly about the countryside, has heard of Rose Maybud and come to find her. Meanwhile, Richard, piqued by Rose’s rejection, snitches to Robin’s younger brother, Despard (Who inherited the curse when Robin fled, and whom he believes to be dead.) that Robin is still alive. The first act ends with Despard interrupting Rose and Robin’s wedding by unmasking the latter as the true bad baronet. Robin must now become the bad baronet; Despard is free to marry Margaret and Rose has to make do with Richard because he’s the only one left!
Act Two opens with Robin and his faithful servant in the hall of Ruddigore Castle trying to think of crimes to commit. They are interrupted by the arrival of Rose and Richard, who have come to ask Robin’s consent to their marriage. He agrees reluctantly and there now comes the big scene of the opera when the ghostly ancestors step down from their picture frames and enquire into the crimes Robin is committing, which they consider unsatisfactory. The last ancestor to die, Sir Roderic, gives Robin a commission which he must carry out in order to avoid death. Despard and Margaret now enter, having become a very respectable married couple, though Margaret has flashes of her old madness. They implore Robin to reject his evil ways. After Robin’s commission has gone somewhat awry there is a little more to-ing and fro-ing before we get the usual topsy-turvy Gilbertian solution and all, as it should in comic opera, ends happily!
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