Patience

Rapturous

Patience

by W. S. Gilbert, music by Sir Arthur Sullivan

HLO Musical Company at the Hampton Hill.Theatre, until 4^th October

Review by Polly Davies

I thoroughly enjoyed this production of this perennial favourite at the Hampton Hill Theatre last night. I’d forgotten how sharp Gilbert and Sullivan’s satire could be. Written to poke fun at the fashionable worship of the aesthetic movement in the 19th Century, it doesn’t miss a trick. There are lovesick maidens, simpering poets and rejected lovers apiece. I doubt anyone would get away with making this much fun of Gen Z’s idols and their fans, even with a similarly deft touch, without falling foul of cancel culture.

The arrival of a somewhat dubious poet, in fact only feigning aestheticism to gain admiration, leads the local ladies to desert their military boyfriends as they fall under the spell of the craze for aestheticism and in particular the dream of romantic love. Self- indulgent and infatuated, they fall in love with this newly arrived and self-declared poet. Local girl Patience is the only one to resist his charms, but her curiosity to understand this phenomenon leads her ultimately to fall under its spell. The appearance of a local poet and the ladies’ intense but fickle grant of affection keeps the audience laughing throughout. All this enlivened by the Gilbert and Sullivan’s usual wit and tongue twisting lyrics, and Lee Dewsnap’s superb musical accompaniment.

In this production the setting is skilfully moved from a bucolic rural scene to an upscale retirement home, familiar as the setting of Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series. Opening to a playful game of carpet bowls, the simple staging with a small sofa, a jigsaw table, and a delightful garden backdrop, is all that’s needed to set the scene. Village maidens have been replaced by ladies who lunch, passing their time arranging flowers, painting and taking part in a beautifully choreographed yoga lesson. The Officers of Dragoon Guards are now a Veteran Guards bowls club. Each is still keenly aware of their military past. And the local milkmaid is now a care-home worker, working at the home.

Full marks to Juliet Manners, Harriet Muir and Elizabeth Malone for all the costume choices especially those for the chorus of ladies. There is a perfect nod to the colourful drapes favoured today as leisure wear for mature women, whilst at the same time subtly evoking the robes of a Greek chorus.

Elizabeth Malone’s professional direction meant that the cast achieved a high standard of acting and vocals throughout the evening. The performance of the chorus of ladies who lunch, whether swooning, kneeling, with some difficulty, at the feet of their favourite poet, or taking part in Robyndra Allen’s Lady Ella’s perfectly timed yoga class, was expertly coordinated and very funny. As was the trio of Tony Cottrill, John Pyle and Paul Huggins as the Duke, Colonel and Major. The ‘It’s clear that medieval art’ skit when they were desperately trying to match the ladies’ new expectations by becoming both “mediaeval” and “sensitive” was very well done.

Andy Cox as Reginald Bunthorpe switched between sensitive aesthete and self- doubt as he seethed at his nemesis Archibald Grosvenor. Robert Smethurst was delightful as the vainglorious Grosvenor, persuading the ladies to swoon over his poetry which owed more to Belloc than Swinburne. Felicity Morgan’s bravura performance as Lady Jane managed to make the ‘Sad is that woman’s lot’ as poignant as it was funny.

A special mention must go to Emma Hartnett’s Patience. As well as a beautiful voice she was equally persuasive as the down-to-earth catering assistant repelling the advances of faux aesthete poet, and the love-sick sweetheart who had fully bought into the love’s painful ecstasy vibe. This is not the easiest of Gilbert and Sullivan’s works to make relevant to a modern world but with their choice of setting and just a touch of modernisation, think phones, jeans, and a sprinkling of retailers, this production succeeded. A thoroughly excellent achievement for the HLO.

Polly Davies, October 2025

Photography by John Malone