THEATRE + COMEDY

The 2004 International Champion Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Houston proudly presents PATIENCE – the classic English comic opera from the clever pens of W.S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan, creators of THE MIKADO, HMS PINAFORE, and THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE.

Join us for six performances of this audience favorite as we continue our 29-year association with internationally-acclaimed British actor Alistair Donkin as our stage director and star (as the poet Reginald Bunthorne). Dr. Brian Runnels, Dean of Fine Arts at Houston Baptist University, returns for his third season as the Society’s Music Director.

Patience, or Bunthorne’s Bride was first performed in 1881, at the height of the “aesthetic” or “art for art’s sake” movement in British literature, art, fashion and interior design. The movement was based on the notion that art should be celebrated purely for its beauty, not for any social or moral value. (Think Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Algernon Swinburne, and, of course, Oscar Wilde.)

Patience is Gilbert and Sullivan’s hilarious parody of the sillier affectations and extremes associated with the movement. We are not immune from similar movements in our own day. Think what Gilbert & Sullivan would have had to say about the Beatnicks, the hippies, the Goths—or the current fascination with all things vampire!

As Patience opens, 20 lovesick maidens—in flowing Pre-Raphaelite hair and gowns, of course—are all mooning over Bunthorne, the local aesthetic poet. But the contrary Mr. Bunthorne has eyes only for Patience, a simple dairy maid, who cares nothing for him or his poetry.

A regiment of Dragoon Guards arrives in town, but the proud guards are humiliated when they discover that the 20 maidens, who loved them the year before, care nothing for them now because they are not glamorous poets. In the meantime, Bunthorne confesses privately that he does not care at all for poetry but only wants to be admired.

To complicate matters further, a rival poet appears on the scene, the young and dazzingly handsome Archibald Grosvenor. He meets Patience and they realize that they were childhood sweethearts and still love each other. But Patience has been told that true love is unselfish, so she forswears her love for Archibald and agrees to marry Bunthorne, whom she detests.

The disappointed maidens immediately transfer their affections to Archibald, who quickly wearies of their obsessive attentions. Unhappiness abounds all around, until, in the end, the aesthetic craze is defeated, the “aesthetes” return to being ordinary, “every day” folks, and everyone gets his or her just reward, including the obnoxious Bunthorne.

PATIENCE will run July 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, and 25, 2010 at the Cullen Theater, Wortham Center in downtown Houston. Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm – Sundays at 2:30pm.

Tickets: $46, $41, and $25 (price includes $1 city theater surcharge). For information call the Society at 713-627-3570 or visit the Society’s web site at www.gilbertandsullivan.net. Ask about group ticket rates. Special Offer – Buy a pair of tickets and receive a $10 gift card to Birra Poretti’s. See website for details! Mastercard, Visa, American Express accepted.