The weekend of October 24-26, 1997, the CT Gilbert and Sullivan Society (CG&SS - Contact information for CG&SS - CT Gilbert and Sullivan Society, PO Box 2152, Middletown, CT 06457 (800) 866-1606 (no email or web site however)) presented their annual show, which was Iolanthe, or The Peer and the Peri. This show is one of the better ones done by G&S mixing a biting satire of the British House of Lords, a touching story line of love and family, beautiful music, and some simply funny dialog and action. All mixed with the typically topsy-turvy storyline that Gilbert so enjoyed.
If you'd like to know more about the play itself, let me refer you to the wonderful Gilbert and Sullivan Archive and to the Iolanthe site within that Archive. These pages have plot summaries, music files, illustrations, and lots more.
NEW!! For the serious inquirer or fancier of Iolanthe, I recommend a stop at the Savoynet's Iolanthe Discussion Archive. There are serious and lighthearted discussions of the four defects of Iolanthe, the unused song, Capt. Shaw, relationships, and MUCH more.
I have scanned in some pictures from the show and have made links to them so as not to overly burden this page's loading. After the photos, I share a bit of our personal history with G&S and with this show in particular. I also have linked in a review of the play that was posted to the G&S Internet Mailing List (Savoynet). Enjoy. And I welcome comments as always.
I brought a camera Saturday night and collected pictures around the theater. These look nicer as 2MB bitmaps, but even as 20-50kB .jpg files they give you a good flavor of what it was all like.
The first shot is of a poster that was out in the lobby showing the various families involved in the show. We're there.
The second shot is the first act stage, the country forest scene.
Third picture is the three girls in costume. They had to be very careful of the fairy wings that were attached behind them.
Fourth photo has all five of us. We don't wear our glasses during the show which was exciting.
Fifth photo (another family shot) (NEW!) is a better shot of all of us.
The last three photos are individual shots of
Stacy, Jessie, and Becky.
