THE PATRICIAN Musical Society’s production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado, held last week in the Town Hall Theatre, was a feast of colour, fun, and wonderful songs.
From the moment the curtain rose on a marvellous 19th century style Japanese set, with a cast of bowler hatted men marching while singing ‘If You Want To Know Who We Are’, you knew you were in for a great night’s entertainment.
None of the cast could be faulted for their wonderful performance on the Saturday night, doing great justice to the songs of Gilbert & Sullivan and bringing out the Victorian humour within both the songs and the script.
Special mention should be made of Declan Kelly in his role as Pooh-Ba, a character who holds almost all political and legal offices in Titipu (the town in which The Mikado is set ) . Kelly, who possesses a marvellously deep voice, revelled in the role and invested Pooh-Ba with pomp and a politician’s sliminess. Emer Barrett, appearing in the guise of an ‘Amy Winehouse from Hell’, as scorned lover Katisha, showed herself to be an outstanding vocalist.
The show stealing performance however came from James Harris as an outrageously camp Ko-Ko, Lord High Executioner.
Prancing and skipping around the stage, Harris gave his character enough bumblingness and innocence to ensure that even a dastardly scheme to execute Nanki-Pooh could not make Ko-Ko a villain. His comedic talents were also much in evidence, especially during his panic stricken reading of a note to Katisha (“P’to, P’to, Oh! Please turn over!” )
This production of The Mikado was a triumph and hopefully the society will stage another Gilbert & Sullivan opera in the not too distant future.
