Our next production - a Triple Bill!

Thank you to all our audiences who made our week presenting Jack the Ripper at the Queen Mother Theatre in Hitchin such a special one!

We appreciate all the support (especially from those swaying along at the back during the finale!) and hope you will all be along to see us at our next production in May 2013, when we will be presenting a triple bill of one act operas. We have a bit of Gilbert partnering Sullivan in the ever popular Trial by Jury, and even more of Sullivan partnering firstly Burnand and then Stephenson in Cox and Box and The Zoo. Both of these operettas are terrific fun and we guarantee that you will have a wonderful evening.

If you are unfamiliar with the works (although some of you will have experienced a breakneck 5 minute Trial in our G&S Sketch Show!) then here is a little bit about them:

Trial by Jury is a comic one act operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan which was first produced in 1875, shortly before The Zoo which we are also presenting in this Triple Bill. Although this was Gilbert and Sullivan's second collaboration (the first being Thespis), all the essentials we expect of a classic G&S farce are here - a parody of 'breach of promise of marriage', a Judge who has risen through the ranks by dubious means, an unfeeling Defendant and a fainting Bride. With music that sizzles along, Trial by Jury was a huge hit when it opened, where it ran for 131 performances at the Royalty Theatre. 138 years later it's still a much performed favourite.

Cox and Box, by Sullivan and Burnand, is our second one act comic opera and tells the increasingly surprising story of two men - one who works days and one who works nights - who are unwittingly renting the same room. Cox and Box was written 5 years before Sullivan’s first partnership with Gilbert for Thespis and premiered in 1866, becoming so popular it ran for 264 performances. Sullivan shows all the musical flare we expect from his later partnership with Gilbert, and Burnand delivers a wonderfully ridiculous story that never flags and delivers plenty of laughs.

The Zoo, by Sullivan and Stephenson, is a one act comic opera without dialogue set in London Zoo. Premièring in 1875 at the Haymarket Theatre, it had a five week run and two short revivals before vanishing from sight. Luckily for us and comic opera lovers everywhere, this gem of a piece was rediscovered by Dr Terence Reece, who bought the manuscript at an auction and arranged for it to be published. Its modern premiere was given by the Fulham Light Opera in 1971 and a recording by D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1978 ensured that this wonderfully funny work re-entered the canon. It has remained popular ever since. The Zoo is a farcical tale of two lovers - a nobleman who is wooing a seller of cakes and buns, and a young chemist who mistakenly believes he has accidentally poisoned his beloved. All kinds of confusion reign until finally all is resolved and the couples live happily ever after.

We look forward to seeing you all again in May!

My name is Jack the Ripper...

The identity of Jack the Ripper tested the detectives of the time and is still the epicentre of endless speculation and theories today, taking such unlikely people as Prince Albert Victor the Duke of Clarence and even Lewis Carroll.

But for Sir Melville Macnaghten of Scotland Yard there were only ever three main suspects, all of which he named in his report of 23 February 1894 in an attempt to throw cold water on the theories put forward by the Sun earlier the same month. The Sun had re-examined the case and named Thomas Cutbush as most likely to be the Ripper.

Macnaughten’s report formed the basis of most early Ripper research. In his opinion the three most likely men to be the Ripper were Montague John Druitt, Michael Ostrog and Aaron Kosminski.

Druitt was a barrister and part-time school teacher at a Blackheath boarding school. He committed suicide in December 1888 after being dismissed from the school for reasons that have never been given. Macnaghten said that Druitt was "a doctor of about 41 years of age and of fairly good family, who disappeared at the time of the Miller’s Court murder, and whose body was found floating in the Thames on 31st December: i.e. 7 weeks after the said murder. The body was said to have been in the water for a month, or more…From private information I have little doubt but that his own family suspected this man of being the Whitechapel murderer, it was alleged that he was sexually insane." Druitt’s body was pulled out of the water at Chiswick. Although there are many good reasons for Druitt being a main suspect, there is also a lot of contradictory evidence.

Ostrog became a likely suspect because the police had been searching asylum releases for a doctor or surgeon who was also a lunatic. That a psychopath with medical knowledge was the Ripper had become their main working theory, possibly one released when the murders started. Ostrog failed to report to the police when requested and Macnaghten said that Ostrog was "…a Russian doctor, and a convict who was subsequently detained in a lunatic asylum as a homicidal maniac. This man’s antecedents were of the worst possible type, and his whereabouts at the time of the murders could never be ascertained."

Aaron Kosminski was, according to Macnaghten “… a Polish Jew, & resident in Whitechapel. This man became insane owing to many years indulgence in solitary vices. He had a great hatred of women, especially of the prostitute class, & had strong homicidal tendencies; he was removed to a lunatic asylum about March 1889…”. Macnaghten wasn't the only one to have Kosminski in his sights, two other high ranking officers who were close to the investigation also considered him to be a likely suspect for the Ripper: head of the C.I.D. Dr. Robert Anderson and the officer in charge of the case, Chief Inspector Donald Swanson. Kosminski entered Colney Hatch Asylum in February 1891.

Out of the three, Druitt was Macnaghten’s favourite suspect, although Detective Chief lnspector John George Littlechild, the ex-head of the Special Branch at Scotland Yard in 1888, considered a fourth suspect to be the Ripper – Francis Tumblety, an Irish seller of patent medicines.

Our Show opens next week at the Queen Mother Theatre, Hitchin and we hope you’ll join us in the search for the Ripper through the streets of Whitechapel. You can book your tickets on-line at the Queen Mother Theatre or by ringing their box office on 01462 455166.

Reference:
http://www.met.police.uk/history/ripper.htm 
http://www.jack-the-ripper.org/

'What a life'

We’re continuing the build-up to our Show, Jack the Ripper by Ron Pember and Denis de Marne, with a look at the lives of the people who lived in Whitechapel, brought vividly to life through music, drama, tragedy and the wry comedy that binds people together through the worst of circumstances.

By the time of the Ripper murders, Whitechapel had become a place of poverty, unemployment, overcrowding and vice of every kind. Nearly 80,000 people were crowded into dismal living conditions, caused by rising rents and the tearing down of unsanitary buildings under the 1875 Artisans and Labourers Dwelling Act. The new buildings meant to replace them were too expensive for people to move back into and the common lodging house became the only thing between most people and the streets. Overcrowded and filthy, many social reformers of the time believed the lodging houses were rife with vice and prostitution, adding to the 63 East End brothels.

Unemployment was high, with an influx of European immigrants fleeing persecution adding to the tension. Most of those lucky enough to be in employment worked 18 hour days in overcrowded sweat shops for minimal wages. Many Whitechapel residents escaped from their grim living conditions, poverty and the grind of sweated labour by spending most of their spare time in the numerous public houses, where drunkenness was rife, leading to more disease and unemployment. Worst of all it led to violence which was so commonplace and accepted in the East End, especially against women, that the journalist George Sims commented before the Ripper murders in 1883 that "the spirit of murder hovers over this spot, for life is held of little account."

For many women, the only way to make a living was through prostitution. Out of the five known ripper victims, three were known to have been previously married, but had been abandoned by or left their husbands. The 1881 census tells us that Elizabeth Stride was married to a carpenter and had moved to London from Sweden, where she had previously worked as a prostitute. By the time of the Ripper murders she was a widow. Catherine Eddowes had a husband and two children at the time of the census and was working as a charwoman, but fell into prostitution to pay the rent on her Spitalfields lodging house. Annie Chapman was married to a stud groom and living near Windsor at the time of the census, but after a series of tragedies, including the death of their 12 year old daughter, they turned to drink. After separating, Annie returned to London and the streets. There is no census information on Nichols, but we know she was born in Limerick, lived in Cardiff and worked in a brothel after arriving in London in 1884. There is no census information on Chapman either but The Star newspaper reported after her horrific murder in 1888 that she “had perhaps a happy and innocent girlhood, and was once a wife, had to turn out and seek the sale of her body for the price of a bed."

The police turned a blind eye to prostitution in the East End where it was rife but rarely came to the attention of the respectable. For the most part the women were left to their trade - prostitution wasn’t a crime and the police could only arrest a prostitute if they create a public disturbance.

It was in this hotbed of poverty, vice, slum conditions and little regard for life that Jack the Ripper carried out his murders, the horror of which finally shed a light on the lives of the people of Whitechapel.

You can join us in the Music Hall and on the streets of Whitechapel by booking your tickets for Jack the Ripper on-line at the Queen Mother Theatre. You will also find alternative booking details here.

Reference:
Essays in history
History of the Metropolitan Police
Daily Mail

'The Ripper's out to get you....'

In the late 1880’s the British public was gripped by the grisly murders of several East End prostitutes. Out of 11 Whitechapel murders between 1888 and 1891, only five are still linked to the infamous Jack the Ripper: Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Lizzie Sride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly. All had their throats cut and suffered mutilation, leaving the women of the East End gripped with fear. So much hype and mystery surrounded the unsolved murders that, even today, the name ‘Jack the Ripper’ is synonymous with terror. The crimes were considered too much for the local constabulary to tackle and Scotland Yard was brought in, leading to one of the Victorian periods greatest and most notorious man hunts. On 27th September 1888 the Central News Agency received a chilling letter. Beginning “Dear Boss” it went on to say “I am down on whores and I shant quit ripping them till I do get buckled...”. Signed ‘Jack the Ripper’ it gripped the imagination of the public and gave the murderer his infamous name. After the Eddowes murder on 30th September 1888 the case was so famous that it appeared in newspapers as far away as America and countless theories were being put forward – the Ripper was a doctor, someone working in a slaughterhouse, a lunatic – the tabloids printed lurid pictures of a shabby doctor like figure with a hat and a bag, countless men were arrested on suspicion and released, and vigilante groups started patrolling the streets. The police’s problems escalated when they were flooded with copycat letters from people claiming to be the Ripper. The height of the panic came with the gruesome murder of Mary Kelly in November 1888, which exceeded anything seen before and coincided with the resignation of the Metropolitan Commissioner of Police, Sir Charles Warren. Although there were two further Whitechapel murders, Kelly was probably the Ripper’s last victim.

The true identity of Jack the Ripper and why the murders suddenly stopped is one of criminology’s enduring mysteries, spawning countless books, theories and discussions which continue today. The focus is usually on the Ripper, but our Show, Jack the Ripper by Ron Pember and Denis de Marne, finally gives the victims the chance to speak. Over the next few weeks we will be posting more dramatic cast photos to give you a taster of our production, which runs from 10th - 13th October.

Our rehearsals are picking up pace and we can promise a fascinating Show where memorable music, words, humour and tragedy allow the lives of the Ripper’s victims to finally take centre stage over the notorious murderer himself. Set in a Music Hall and on the dark and grimy streets of London, we invite you into their world.

You can book your tickets for Jack the Ripper on-line at the Queen Mother Theatre. You will also find alternative booking details here.

Reference details taken from: History of the Metropolitan Police. 

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PBGS Patience opens 2nd May!

Our Spring Show, Gilbert & Sullivan's Patience, opens on May 2nd (tickets are selling fast so don’t delay booking!). With just under two weeks to go the Show is already on sparkling form and Alison Gibbs' production promises to deliver a hilarious night out both for those familiar with the show and for those that aren’t! It is mainly traditional but with some twists and - for G&S buffs - there is a chance to finally hear the second verse of the beautiful Patience-Angela duet ‘Long years ago…’ which Gilbert cut after the first few nights. For those that would like to read a synopsis of the show before seeing it, follow this link to the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive for all that and more.

When Patience, or ‘Bunthorne’s Bride’, opened at the Opéra Comique on 23rd April 1881 Oscar Wilde himself was in the stalls to watch their send up of all things Aesthetic. The Sporting Times reported ‘There with the sacred daffodil stood the exponent of uncut hair…Ajax-like, defying the gods!’

Clara Dow, C. H. Workman and Louie Rene in a 1907 production of Patience.

Patience was a huge success with a total of nine numbers demanding an encore on the opening night. According to Era “the curtain fell amidst hearty applause, and Mr. Gilbert and Mr. Sullivan were called to the footlights and congratulated most emphatically upon their success”. It was still running when D’Oyly Carte opened his new Savoy Theatre in October 1881 and was the first production performed in the theatre:

“The Theatre will be opened under my management on Monday next, October 10th, and I have the satisfaction to be able to announce that the opening piece will be Messrs. W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan’s Patience, which, produced at the Opéra Comique on April 23rd, is still running with a success beyond and precedent.” – R.D’Oyly Carte’s opening announcement.

Patience opening the new Savoy Theatre

Between the two theatres Patience ran for a total of 578 performances. Gilbert was worried that Aestheticism was a passing phase and Patience would pass with it, but it has proved enduringly funny and always will be while there is still a self-regarding artistic establishment to puncture and fads to be followed.

Booking details for our PBGS production of Patience are here, and we are looking forward to seeing you at The Queen Mother Theatre, although we can’t promise to encore nine numbers!

References:
The First Night Gilbert and Sullivan, Reginald Allen, Chappell
Gilbert and Sullivan and their World, Lesley Bayley, Thames and Hudson

Tickets now available for PBGS 'Patience'!

 The original Duke, Colonel and Major

Patience tickets are now available from PBGS members (either by directly contacting those you know or by ringing 07946 264886) or from the Queen Mother Theatre Box Office: 01462 455166 from 12.30-1.30pm Mondays to Saturdays and 8.00-9.30pm Mondays to Thursdays. You an also buy them on-line from the Theatre. If you would like a booking form follow this link to a printable PDF: booking form.

Tickets for the show are already selling well so don't dally! Regular supporters will know that our productions are always sung to a very high standard with outstanding soloists and chorus (our Act 1 finale 'O list while we...' really raises the roof!). We are also presenting an extremely funny production which will be enjoyed by everyone. When Gilbert and Sullivan wrote Patience they were making fun of the Aesthetic movement of the 1870s and 1880s, led by Oscar Wilde. Although this is a traditional production (but with some little twists!) it is easy to see that fads, fashions, and 'going with the crowd' never changes and Gilbert pokes fun at the absurdity of it all.

Oscar Wilde really set the Aesthetic movement on fire when he 'arrived from Oxford clutching his sacred lily, enthusing about blue and white china and the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelites and describing Henry Irving's legs as "distinctly precious" ' (the Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan, Penguin, 1984). All of this will be familiar to Patience fans where Bunthorne, the 'Aesthetic Sham', pretends to be a poet because he wants to be popular and lure the ladies. He extols the fact that he is 'such a judge of blue-and-white and other kinds of pottery' and then descends to bathos by putting himself up in a raffle. His bubble of popularity bursts when another Aesthetic poet turns up who is even worse at poetry than he is.

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde proved to be a good sport in all of this. It increased his fame and, when Patience opened in the United States, the ever resourceful D'Oyly Carte (never one to miss a trick) sent Wilde over there on a lecture tour to be 'a sandwich board for Patience'. He lectured in every city that Patience opened in wearing a suit of 'black velvet and knee breeches'. As the Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan points out, American audiences on seeing him and then Bunthorne must have wondered just exactly who was imitating who!

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We're back from Buxton!

No missing us around Buxton! Alice's mum, Joan, thinks we look FAB ©Sue Wookey

Well, we did it! Most of us are back now from our Buxton adventure (although a few hardy Putt souls are still there enjoying the G&S Festival) and it’s time to enjoy the fruits of our endeavours, and share experiences and photos. If you have any anecdotes or pictures you would like to share here, send them on to me and I’ll post them for you. If you don’t it will be only my memories, and we can’t have that!

But, to start us off, I think we need to thank Paula for coming up with such a wonderful show and seeing it through to the Pavilion Arts Centre stage. The audience loved it (as we knew they would). I’ve now watched the DVD, created by All Media Works and available from Musical Collectables Ltd, (order your copies now, if you don’t have them!) and it’s the first time I’ve been able to appreciate how slick it really is, seamlessly carrying the audience through the operettas with an affectionate eye for the absurdities that make them funny. Next in the line-up of thanks is Margaret for keeping us all in line, getting the best out of us and playing her arms off, Tash for calmly making the whole thing work on an untried and untested stage (we love you, Tash!) and Mark and Calum, and all the techie helpers from the theatre for their considerable efforts with the new equipment. It was a real challenge and we are all very grateful. Special thanks go to Robin for his calm advice, guidance and support – it was lovely knowing you were out there willing us through it, Robin – to Richard for wrestling Elsie the Eagle into submission, to Sue for spending so much time making it, Paula’s mum, Ann, for making the world’s biggest wedding dress (eat your heart out, Zara) and to the Smiths for allowing us to present a madcap start to the Fringe Festival.

Finally – let’s thank ourselves because each and every person on that stage has earned it. Adapting to the backstage challenges while going on and performing to that level is a considerable achievement. Personally I think each and every member up there excelled themselves – watch the DVD and be astonished.

There will be more Buxton posts coming soon, but in the meantime here are a few more photos from me and from Teresa to enjoy:

© Teresa Newham

Everyone takes the whole thing really seriously on the Pavilion Stage....

©Sue Wookey

Paula checks out the Diva Wedding Dress.

 ©Sue Wookey

Every bride needs a bridesmaid...

 ©Sue Wookey

Graham and John checking a little list.

©Sue Wookey

Elsie the Eagle rests at Thorn Hays before the performance

©Sue Wookey

Elsie gets ready to fly...

©Sue Wookey

We have lift off!

©Sue Wookey

Waiting to go on by the cool of the stage door.

©Sue Wookey

The Buxton Opera House before Edinburgh's performance of The Mikado.

These are just a few of my (and Teresa's) photos. I'm sure everybody would love to see yours if you have them. And if anyone would like to write up a short piece about their wild weekend in Buxton (maybe Deano can write a poem : -), I'm sure everyone would love that too!

- Sue W.

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Next stop Buxton!

Buxton Opera House glass © Sue Wookey

After a really successful performance of the G&S Sketch Show at Henlow Theatre last night (and a big thanks to everyone who came and supported us!) it's now full steam ahead for our Buxton Festival Fringe Performance. Judging by the enjoyment of our Henlow audience, the Buxton audiences are in for a treat.

Our performance will be at the newly refurbished Pavilion Arts Centre, and you can find more information about the venue here at Derbyshire Life. If you are in the region, please come along and join us for a feast of Gilbert and Sullivan's best, presented as a fast-paced review following all the main themes of the operettas.

Tickets are £10 and available via Buxton Opera House Booking.

© Sue Wookey

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Show taster results

The Show Taster results are in, after an entertaining evening sampling a variety of shows and some really fun presentations. This is a provisional list as the Autumn shows depend on the availability of performing licenses, but here is the master plan so far, based on popularity:

Spring 2012 (April) - Patience
Autumn 2012 (October) - Jack the Ripper (The Musical)
Spring 2013 (April) - The Zoo, Cox and Box, Trial by Jury
Autumn 2013 (October) - Salad Days

It looks like we have a very exciting two years ahead, both for audiences and the Society!

Here are some links with more information about the shows:

Salad Days:   Guide to Musical Theatre
Patience:   The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive
The Zoo:   The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive
Cox and Box: The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive
Trial by Jury: The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive

 The cover of the original cast recording
© Oriole Records

Ruddigore: a matter of life and death and bad taste

 Roderick's entrance through the trap door

After Ruddigore's mixed First Night reviews, Gilbert made several changes to his production. While the original title, Ruddygore, created a furore amongst those who thought that it unsuitable for the ears of Ladies, there was another aspect of the first night which raised accusations of bad taste. A anonymous letter, signed 'A Savoyard' was sent to the editor of the St James Gazette complaining that "The love-scene between Hannah and the ghost of a man who has been ten years dead produced an uncomfortable impression.... it is a grisly idea; it is not funny; and it is in doubtful taste...". Ah, the sensibilities of the Victorians. Imagine if he'd seen The Rocky Horror Show.

The comment, along with accusations that Act 2 lacked pace, resulted in several changes - Sir Roderick no longer returned at the end by popping up through a trap door and surrounded by red flames, removing that demonic air which made his entrance to startling. The ghostly ancestors didn't return at all, but reappeared as the gentry of the first act (begging the question, what on earth were they doing there?) and a substantial amount of Hannah and Roderick's dialogue was cut altogether, losing, alas, Hannah's wonderfully tasteless line "But I should be the wife of a dead husband, Roddy!" It was generally agreed that the swifter conclusion picked up the pace of Act 2. But I would have loved to have see the original 'grisly' version.

- SW
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PBGS Ruddigore, 4-7th May 2011

An original Savoy Theatre publicity card

We are now in the last stages of putting our production of Ruddigore together and things are really starting to shape up. This is going to be a very funny production with an excellent cast, and a chorus excelling themselves at mastering the choreography of the long dances which Sullivan wrote into the score. Margaret is Mad, Despard is Bad and our Chairman will be getting Very Dangerous to Know if we don't start selling more tickets. This is going to be a terrific evening of comic melodrama (Gilbert gives us carte blanche for some serious over-acting!) and some of Sullivan's best music, so start filling out those booking forms. Tickets are available through members - who can obtain them during rehearsals from Ketina - or they can be booked direct from:

The Queen Mother Theatre

Walsworth Road

Hitchin SG4 9SP

Theatre Box Office: 01462 455166 between 12.30 and 1.30pm Mondays to Saturdays and 8pm to 9.30pm Mondays to Thursdays

Or from the Society: 07946 264886

Tickets £12, *Concessions Wed and Thur £10

*concessions: senior citizens, children, ES40JPs, students

The Queen Mother Theatre Website

BOOKING FORM downloadable PDF File

POSTER downloadable PDF File

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