NCH, Dublin:Gilbert and Sullivan's shipboard satire gets a refreshing treatment in this production, its eleventh by the Rathmines & Rathgar Musical Society.
John O’Donoghue’s attractive and resourceful scenery updates the action from the age of sail to the age of steam. It’s enhanced by tastefully chameleonic lighting by Denis Twomey that’s as changeable as the weather itself.
Gilbert would probably have approved the set, but perhaps not the inclusion of two extra numbers. King Gama’s song from Princess Ida is borrowed to introduce the (not entirely compatible) character of Dick Deadeye, while Captain Corcoran’s ballad Reflect, my child – dropped from the original 1878 production and not rediscovered until 1999 – gets an intriguing reinstatement.
With strings in short supply, Gearóid Grant’s orchestra isn’t helped by patchy amplification, and coordination with the chorus sometimess lackens. The chorus’s balance and diction, however, are on a par with Marina Kealy’s lively and disciplined choreography.
Combined with Garry Mountaine’s balanced direction, the casting yields strongly diverse characterisations. Jimmy Dixon enjoys himself in a tweedy take on the contradictory naval bureaucrat Sir Joseph Porter, while Gerald Bloomer brings Dickensian grotesqueness to the misanthropic role of Deadeye.
Brian Gilligan has the right nascent lyric qualities for a youthful portrayal of lovelorn seaman Ralph Rackstraw. He’s lustily supported during the unaccompanied trio by Michael Clark and Emmet Cahill in the respective roles of boatswain’s and carpenter’s mates.
As Mrs “Buttercup” Cripps, Jackie Curran-Olohan articulates a hilarious comic mezzo that barely contains her considerable lyric power. In one deftly executed duet routine, her stage wits meet their match in tenor Paul Kelly, who as Captain Corcoran imbues the production with debonair backbone.
There are specially pleasing contributions too from soprano Nicola Mulligan, who as Corcoran’s sought-after daughter, Josephine, combines naturalness and melodrama, crisp enunciation and operatic bloom, in just the right proportions. Until Sat
