The 2024 Festival of W.S. Gilbert was presented by Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Victoria. Directors Ben Klein, Sarah Berry, Danielle Zuccala and Naomi Tooby brought to the stage, a selection of four of W.S. Gilbert’s one-act plays in this performance over one night.
As a young barrister, to supplement his income, Gilbert turned to writing. He wrote over 40 plays as well as libretti, short stories, poems and lyrics (1871-1911).
The night offered a cross-section of his diversity of styles from comedy, tragedy, romance including parody.
Since first staged over one hundred years ago, his words, topics, literary acumen and pace still hold audiences today.
In the slapstick comedy, Creatures of Impulse, Diana Burleigh played a convincing, conniving, wicked fairy of interminable age who outwits her hosts and townsfolk when she entrenches herself in the town inn with no intention of leaving.
Comedy and Tragedy is an amusing piece of dramatic irony exploring the twists and turns of an actress’ troublesome romantic situation using skulduggery to effect a solution.
Sara Dimech-Betancourt’s performance portrayed an attractive, wiley Clarice de Quillaca to arouse the sympathy intended through Gilbert’s script.
A strong cast skilfully delivered characters Rosencrantz and Guidenstern in this comedic parody and tragedy in which Hamlet’s madness is indicated through incessant soliloquising.
The two title characters, with Ophelia, plot Hamlet’s downfall and carry out their scheme to unite the Ophelia with her lover when they act out Claudius’s long-lost, failed script.
In the final play, The Hooligan, written just four months before Gilbert’s death, Josh Weaver gives a superb performance as Nat Solly, the condemned man in Pentonville Prison.
A commendation goes to costuming which was vibrant and spot-on for each character throughout.
gsov.org.au

• Review by Sherryn Danaher