Iolanthe
August 8, 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm
£22
The Gilbert & Sullivan Festival welcomes Brussels Light Opera Company, competing for the International Festival Trophy sponsored by Theatrical Adventures G&S River Cruises.
Brussels Light Opera Company returns next summer with Iolanthe. BLOC’s brand-new production promises a comical romp through Parliament, complete with pompous Peers and formidable fairies!
Iolanthe, banished from fairyland for marrying a mortal, is pardoned by her Queen. She has a son, Strephon, who is half a fairy and is in love with Phyllis, a ward of court. The entire House of Lords also loves Phyllis, and they turn up en masse to woo her. When Phyllis overhears Strephon talking to his very young-looking fairy mother, she assumes he is being unfaithful and spurns him.
The Fair Queen intervenes and sends Strephon into Parliament, where he creates havoc. The plot thickens when Strephon’s father decides that he will marry Phyllis!
Soon the peers and the fairies are virtually at war, and long friendships are torn apart. But all is happily sorted out thanks to the ‘subtleties of the legal mind.’