About PATIENCE 2010
Patience made its debut at the Opera Comique in London on April 23, 1881. On October 10, 1881, Patience became the first of Gilbert & Sullivan's operas to be performed at the newly completed Savoy Theater. The initial run of Patience closed after 578 performances.
Plot Summary of "Patience"
Patience, or Bunthorne’s Bride was first performed in 1881, at the height of the “aesthetic” or “art for art’s sake” movement in British literature, art, fashion and interior design. The movement was based on the notion that art should be celebrated purely for its beauty, not for any social or moral value. (Think Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Algernon Swinburne, and, of course, Oscar Wilde.) Patience is Gilbert and Sullivan’s hilarious parody of the sillier affectations and extremes associated with the movement. We are not immune from similar movements in our own day. Think what Gilbert & Sullivan would have had to say about the Beatnicks, the hippies, the Goths—or the current fascination with all things vampire!
As Patience opens, 20 lovesick maidens—in flowing Pre-Raphaelite hair and gowns, of course—are all mooning over Bunthorne, the local aesthetic poet. But the contrary Mr. Bunthorne has eyes only for Patience, a simple dairy maid, who cares nothing for him or his poetry.
A regiment of Dragoon Guards arrives in town, but the proud guards are humiliated when they discover that the 20 maidens, who loved them the year before, care nothing for them now because they are not glamorous poets. In the meantime, Bunthorne confesses privately that he does not care at all for poetry but only wants to be admired.
To complicate matters further, a rival poet appears on the scene, the young and dazzingly handsome Archibald Grosvenor. He meets Patience and they realize that they were childhood sweethearts and still love each other. But Patience has been told that true love is unselfish, so she forswears her love for Archibald and agrees to marry Bunthorne, whom she detests.
The disappointed maidens immediately transfer their affections to Archibald, who quickly wearies of their obsessive attentions. Unhappiness abounds all around, until, in the end, the aesthetic craze is defeated, the “aesthetes” return to being ordinary, “every day” folks, and everyone gets his or her just reward, including the obnoxious Bunthorne.
Patience Cast — 2010
PRINCIPAL PLAYERS
- REGINALD BUNTHORNE (A Fleshly Poet) - Alistair Donkin
- ARCHIBALD GROSVENOR (An Idyllic Poet) - Dennis Arrowsmith
- PATIENCE (A Dairy Maid) - Nicole Gray
- COLONEL CALVERLEY - Ralph Katz
- MAJOR MURGATROYD - Shelton Alsup
- LIEUTENANT, THE DUKE OF DUNSTABLE - Joe Key
- THE LADY ANGELA - Christy Larimer-Compson
- THE LADY SAPHIR - Molly Hanes
- THE LADY ELLA - Melissa Fritsche
- THE LADY JANE - Sarah Lee
- MR. BUNTHORNE'S SOLICITOR - Alan Buck