"Patience" by Gilbert & Sullivan.

Christchurch Gilbert & Sullivan Society.

Iveshead School Theatre, Shepshed.

"Patience" or "Bunthorne's Bride" is an operetta by Gilbert & Sullivan and, in the same way that William Shakespeare often puts theatre goers off by your experience at school, Gilbert & Sullivan can often have the same effect with just that phrase operetta.

Gilbert & Sullivan are masters at writing great comedy songs for wonderful comic pieces of theatre and this is one of their best, and also one of their little performed pieces, which is just another reason for me wanting to see it again.

It's the story of Reginald Bunthorne, a poet, who would be the equivalent of your Justin Bieber or Harry Styles of today. He is followed by all of the women in the town who want him to be their one and only. Bunthorne though is in love with the milkmaid, Patience, who isn't in love with him.

Along comes another poet Archibald Grosvenor, another aesthetically pleasing young man, and becomes the flavour of the month and all the maidens follow him around which irks Bunthorne, knocking his massive ego. What irks Bunthorpe the most is that Archibald knew Patience when she was a younger girl, and still holds a flame for her!

A simple story of shallowness and fickleness where poets, painters and artistic designers were the pin up pop idols of the day.

Being a G&S Society, you just know that the vocals in these shows are going to be among the best, and they are, so I don't need to tell you how good these actors are with the vocals. it goes without saying that you're going to get some powerful and beautiful voices.

Patience, the lowly Milkmaid, is played by Rachel Fitzpatrick, who reprises her role from the 2012 production. One of the highlights of this operetta soundtrack is the gorgeous “Love is a Plaintive Song” in the second act. As I said earlier, Gilbert & Sullivan were masters at writing comedy, and Rachel gets to showcase, not only her vocals, but her lovely way with comedy as well.

Al Jordan plays Reginald Bunthorne, the man who has fallen for Patience, overlooking the twenty lovelorn maidens who wait for him with bated breath. What I love about characters like Bunthorpe is the flouncy campness, but also the masculinity of the character, which comes out through his vanity. Al brings all of those ingredients to the stage in one wonderfully camp but comic character.

Archibald Grosvenor is played by Richard Craggs. Grosvenor is more than a match for Bunthorpe in every way, except he is not a fan of having all of these women flocking around him, when all he wants is Patience. Grosvenor, while being aware that he has been blessed with the looks of an Adonis, is more of a one man woman, but he has to ring the changes, personality wise to get the woman he loves. How does he do that? Come along and see; and I love the change in Grosvenor's voice and accent. Not sure if that accent is Richard's real accent, but that little twist was a real surprise, character wise.

The chorus of Maidens consist of Brigitte Ainsworth, Alix Ashurst, Lynne Atkin, Mary Barber, Rachel Cousen, Jane dobson, Cheryl Hammersley, Christine Hibbard, Amy North, Sally Portsmouth, Sue Smith and Helen Tomlinson. All these maidens have heavenly voices that bring life to Gilbert & Sullivan's libretto.

The Ladies are made up of Helen Smith (Lady Cecilia), Valerie Hart (Lady Angela), Alison Matthews-Savage (Lady Saphir), Rosie Smith (Lady Ella), Harriet Myers (Lady Juliana) and Laura Gregory (Lady Jane). Once again, a chorus of heavenly voices.

John Cousen plays Mr Bunthorne's Solicitor, who gets knocked around quite a bit on stage.

Matthew Hammersley (Major Murgatroyd), Adrian Dobson (Duke of Dunstable) and Richard Tomlinson (Colonel Calverley) are the main men in charge of the Dragoon Guards, aka The Queen's Men. Apart from having big voices, and in the case of Adrian, a wonderful vibrato, they also get to show their comedic side as their characters decide to try and get "with it" by mimicking the clothes wore by Bunthorne and Grosvenor, with very comical effects.

The Officers of The Dragoon Guards are played by Paul Ainsworth, Edward Atkin, Ray Connelly, Joun Cousen, Richard Craggs, Brian Fletcher, Alan Hobson, Mike Jones, Roger Muggleton, Richard Perkins and Howard Pritchett, who counter the higher voices of the ladies with some lovely rich lower tones, and some rather excellent marching!

Directed by Cheryl Hammersley, assisted by Angela Kilpin. They have retained every bit of comedy in this classic operetta, and even enhanced some, from what I can remember from the last time I saw this particular piece of Gilbert & Sullivan, although that was seven years ago. It was tight and pacy and had the flow that you'd want from such a show.

Nicole Jordan is the Musical Director. Gilbert & Sullivan is not an easy sing, even if you sing it on a regular basis. They can be incredibly wordy and need to be delivered rhythmically, sometimes lovely and tenderly, and at times, especially with the patter songs that G&S are so well known for, and there's some of both rates of singing in "Patience".  You can hear the work that has been put in by the MD because you could hear every word sung, and that isn't always easy with the faster songs, because the words are almost an early equivalent of rap music. They need room to breathe and have to be delivered with rhythm and timing to get the full comedy affect.

The twelve strong orchestra is conducted by Carolyn Muggleton. What a delightful sound they make, and they made these songs sound the same way as if you were listening to the world famous Doyle Carte Orchestra; they had that specific sound and rich feel.

Choreographed by Amy North. If you've never seen anything by Gilbert & Sullivan, you won't know just how well timed the choreography for these operettas need to be. There are a lot of people on stage and the choreography has to absolutely spot on to get that desired effect. So, if you want to see what a well choreographed piece of Gilbert & Sullivan should look like, come on down to Shepshed and take a butchers at this show!

Lighting by Paul Boneham and Sound is by Paul Frost. The pair of Pauls did a great job; they didn't give me anything to criticise with their smooth operation of sound and light. The crackly mic packs can't be helped if it happens on stage, but they were soon sorted out and didn't impede on the overall sound quality.

The costumes were brilliant, especially the foppish designs for Bunthorpe and Grosvenor. the ladies all looked superb and the Guards, Colonel, Major and Duke's costumes were equally wonderful.

Expertly stage managed, and as you can see, there's a lot of people to manage, by Gordon Kilpin. Gordon also designed the set which looked great with the large gazebo at the back of the stage, adorned with foliage and covering the seating for both poets to pose on.

On Tuesday I was speaking to a lady at the theatre who said that she would go and see most theatre shows but could not bring herself to go and see opera. I think that she should take a risk and see something like this light opera because she is missing out on such a lot of fun, as well as some wonderful vocalists that we have in the East Midlands. I advised her of this production, so you never know......

"Patience" will be waiting for you to get those tickets right up until Saturday 2 November, so don't keep her waiting!