And The Cow Is Behind You: Iolanthe, English National Opera @ the Coliseum
Gilbert and Sullivan fairyland and politics operetta meets pantomime in this jubilant ENO staging. There is JOY as gags pile upon gags — the choreography of the gags is something. As is the singing, which sometimes gets overshadowed by the amount of gags taking place in the background. At the same time can a Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera about fairies invading the House of Lords be anything but gag-laden? Plus surprise appearance by Boris Johnson — read on or flee now….
The ENO are back, baby! After Arts Council funding dictates tried to force an unwanted move to the regions and completely messed up their programming. But back at their usual home (London’s Coliseum), the English National Opera carry on carrying on — literally — with a pantomime of an operetta and lots of snark at the Arts Council and current UK government’s expense. There is even a Boris look-alike complete with mad hair. Huzzah!
Shall I even try to explain the plot? We have a Victorian firefighter as our narrator, who fills some time at the beginning, snarks at the Arts Council and stupid UK government’s hatred of arts and arts funding in favour of STEM and compulsory Maths for all teens and appears at various points to interact with the audience. He is also one of the many gags as he appears at various points to remove unsafe ‘flammable’ items or to put out fires! Health and safety first! and hold on to your seats as this operetta is about to go Carry On. This, I think, was Clive Mantle as Captain Shaw. Huzzah!
In fairyland (think swoony Richard Dadd set with nosy puppets by Paul Brown), the Queen of the Fairies (Catherine Wyn-Rogers) has banished Iolanthe (Samantha Price) to an immortal penance for daring to marry a mortal, commuted from the death penalty. All the other fairies are deeply sad about all of this and secretly want to marry mortals of their own. Baffling to the Queen (in full Wagner stereotype battle woman dress or perhaps 1990s Madonna) Iolanthe has sentenced herself to live at the bottom of a stream (better than death?) The Queen summons her back. Huzzah! It turns out that the glamourous and very young looking Iolanthe, surely no older than 17, has a 20-something son called Strephon (Marcus Farnsworth) who loves the Chancellor’s ward Phyllis (Ellie Laugharne). Only the Lord Chancellor (John Savournin) isn’t keen, all the House of Lords peers want to marry her too, possibly even the Lord Chancellor himself and Strephon has a secret — his mother is a fairy. He’s also half-fairy, from the legs down. (Snigger). Equally sniggersome is his name which the Queen of the Fairies keeps mis-pronouncing (fanar, fanar or perhaps phanar, phanar. Ed.) Other wonderful gags included the appearance of a unicorn (milked by its horn like a pump in a pub by the Queen of the Fairies), a gangly flamingo puppet and other animals which appear on the edges of the stage and peep at proceedings. Costumed as large flowers, Victorian music hall style, the ensemble of fairies are delightful; less delightful is being Queen of them, as you try to start a fire and the fireman narrator puts it out; you start to flame your wand… and have it confiscated.
Strephon causes all the fairies to go weak at the knees and more — a half-mortal man in their midst! For he and Phyllis are both perfect 18th-century Arcadians, with bare feet — he’s a Shepherd and she’s a ward of Chancery. Love Phyllis’s straw hat — straight out of a Gainsborough portrait. They can’t wait and must marry now! (before Phyllis becomes too old!) Their beautiful romantic ballad was overshadowed by a gag — various sheep being pushed around the stage by stage hands who couldn’t really see in their dark disguises and often had to be rescued or rescue each other from being trapped on stage, as well as moving heavy sheep. One sheep was on its side, which was alarming! At some point the flamingo joined proceedings and lost a leg — I can’t remember if it was on top of a sheep or later, on the pantomime cow… This was also the point when I began to wonder if the gags (which were great) were causing us to not listen to any of the music or singing, because we were guffawing at the background proceedings. Anyhoow…
The Lords of the Realm made a terrific entrance — bursting through the backdrop on a steam train with a carriage. (Think Stephenson’s Rocket). With real steam. Huzzah! They were in their full swag and sang about how stately, hierarchical and dignified they were (mostly) — only one of them was Boris Johnson wigged and another had a cute dog puppet, who joined in with all the action and choreography. In charge of them all was the Lord Chancellor, who was refusing to wear his wig. Cue frustrated dresser/Page (Adam Brown) trying to get the wig on the Chancellor’s ever moving head during the song, and a bit of pass the wig among the peers going on. Off they marched again, the Chancellor dragging Phyllis with him. Forget angels dancing on the head of a pin, how many robed Peers fit in a carriage on the stage of the Coliseum? (Packing them in!)
To get his gal, the fairies decided that the best thing for Strephon, (no the Queen still can’t get his name right, snigger) is to become a politician. Cue loss of 18th-century dress and fairies turning him into a late 19th century politician. They have also invaded the House of Lords smoking and tea lounge to do this. Cue a song which turns random servants into Queen Elizabeth I and Horatio Nelson. Plus fairies sitting around looking bored, on peers. They are shut out of the House — this means war!
Feebly disguised as shrubbery (but not white picket fences), Phyllis and various peers spay on Strephon on Hampstead Heath — with a young lady of 17. He claims she is his mother — an unlikely story. Cue exasperated Phyllis and Peers + dog ‘hiding’ behind bits of twiggy fir branch. No-one is at all good at hiding. Strephon despairs at not being believed — the Fairies will sort everyone out! Er, everything. Despondently, outraged Phyllis breaks with Strephon and quickly agrees to marry a Peer — any Peer will do. Indeed, she appears to be engaged to two at the same time, leaving it up to them to sort out who gets to marry her. She doesn’t care — they’re not Strephon. (And there’s a pantomime cow on the Heath too).
Act 2 — in the House of Lords, the Chancellor sleeps on the wool sack — and for rather a long time too as clearly there was set issue beforehand. But they turned this into a joke! Transforming from pajamas to Peer swag (with bum flashing — unexpected), the Chancellor sang about possibly how hard it is to be a Chancellor. It was good, but I was distracted by the dresser/Page who kept on being comedically smacked about during the dressing, bounced up and down on the Wool Sack, joined some other sleepy Peers to seat dance and was finally bundled down into the throne like Speaker’s Chair. So many gags! (And has the flamingo got its leg back?) At some point too, a bum pinching nun and a priest scampered past in the background, as well as a randy Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, (desperate to get back in again). Too many gags!
Iolanthe has infiltrated the inner sanctum, and spies the Chancellor. For it is he — her long lost husband, who she agreed to give up as part of her life sentence. By making herself invisible (literally, veil over the head and pronouncing ‘Invisible’) she seeks to meet with her estranged husband again and resolves the misunderstandings.
Meanwhile, Strephon has convinced Phyllis that his mother really is forever young, dainty and beautiful, and this isn’t a political or society scandal at all — just family! To celebrate their renewed love — they clog dance and sing beautifully.
All’s well that ends well as the fairies all marry mortals (i.e. Peers) and everyone has a lot of fun flying about on wires, shouting ‘hello’ and waving enthusiastically to the audience. Even the Queen of the Fairies buckles and marries a stately Guardsman (magnificent Keel Watson), bearskin hat and all. I’m sure at one point birds flew over head too. Strephon and Phyllis are together, the Chancellor reunites with Iolanthe, and Phyllis realises that if she sees her husband kissing a young girl of 17, it’s merely a ‘fairy aunt!’ She also accepts that her young and beautiful mother-in-law is quite a mover. Everyone gets wings!
Heaps of fun, I do feel that the gorgeous music and singing was overshadowed by a gag pile-on. Perhaps less is more? On the other hand this is Gilbert and Sullivan, so is this even possible or reasonable? Great to see the ENO back with gusto and feisty, literally satirising the powers that be with an operetta that japes the powers that be. Did enjoy the fireman narrator’s banter, including some fire about enjoying the diversity of the audience — upper middle class and middle class! Enjoying too the current trend for celebrating the conductor and musicians as they were marvellous here.
Intriguingly the Coliseum has a policy of under-21’s accompanying adults for free. Noticeably there were some very young children in the audience for what was more adult content. It wasn’t super adult, being more cheeky, but it did become more a pantomime than operetta feel. It also meant adjusting to children clunking around or speaking loudly or noisy movements and exits throughout, which was a bit distracting. However, it does mean that adults can see a production for £10 (cheapest seat price!) and save on childcare and enjoy a family outing. I also had the joy of listening to small people laugh loudly as the dresser/Page was accidentally beaten all round the stage during the song and dressing scene- they are very funny to listen to. Not quite sure what I think as it just wasn’t very young child friendly (2 hours 45 mins long), but brilliant for older children and teens as an introduction to operetta. Staff were noticeably kind in helping families to move around and find the best view in the cheaper galleries. At the end of the day I wonder if this is a parental choice issue though — like the Barbie movie about ‘toys’, just because this production has got a fairy on its poster doesn’t mean that it’s suitable for all ages.
Can’t deny the ebullience or vivacity of the cast, or the perfect timing of the gags. On the whole, I’d prefer more focus on the music and singing though as the gags did smother at points, although it was all very amusing and unconventional. Mention too must be made of the superb lighting and wire work which added so much to the production — kudos to Tim Mitchell and Ian Jackson-French as well as Lizzi Gee.
@ Images are from the ENO’s 2023 production of Iolanthe and used purely to illustrate the author’s article. They remain the property of the English National Opera and are in no way the author’s own. October 2023.
