Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride

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J. Miner Photography

Cast members of "Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride."

Cast members of "Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride," Madison Savoyards, 2024.

The light comic operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan continue to inspire troupes that are devoted entirely to producing their works and their works alone. Such is the joyful task of the Madison Savoyards. This summer’s work is Patience, one of the duo’s most popular. It’s a satire on the English aesthetic movement of the 1870s and '80s and such poets as Swinburne and Dante Gabriel Rosetti. While the movement is long out of style, poetic affectation is always a worthy target and there is plenty of truth-telling amidst the frolic. Shows are at 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. Free kids' pre-show activities will take place at 1 p.m. on Aug. 4.

media release: By Arthur Sullivan & W.S. Gilbert

Director J. Michael Bruno; music director Christopher Ramaekers.

Madison Savoyards presents Patience, an operatic ode to the silliness of fads, fashion, and Art for Art’s sake, imbued with the brilliant music of Arthur Sullivan and biting wit of W.S. Gilbert. Live musicians, singers and dancers take the stage of the Bartell Theatre in downtown Madison August 2 through 12 to perform this rarely produced, poetic and aesthetic titillating tale.

In Patience, Madison Savoyards continues presenting the core of the Gilbert & Sullivan corpus, while also finding content that speaks to audiences today. A show that invokes themes of the vain, pretentious, and superficial, as well as of simplicity and love, MSL’s Patience will shed an entertaining and ‘new light’ on our contemporary world. Satire can be a rapier, cutting into the pretenses of society — in the 20th century sometimes a weapon in the class struggle. That may be a loaded concept for the delightfully silly confections of G&S opera, but the operas did (and do!) offer a concerted pushback against the self-important authority figures who were their constant targets. A healthy skepticism laced with broad humor can go a long way toward keeping public officials honest and above-board. Typical of a G&S work, hilarity, contradictions and topsy-turvy reversals ensue, all set to charming melodies, the requisite patter songs, duets and choruses.

Performed on the Drury Stage

Principals

Colonel Calverley - Bradley J. Carter

Major Murgatroyd - Jeremy Dyer

Duke of Dunstable - Matthew Jordan

Reginald Bunthorne - Roland Beach

Archibald Grosvenor - Mike Brady

Lady Angela - Colleen Murphy

Lady Saphir - Jesse Harrison

Lady Ella - Stephanie Frank

Lady Jane - Brendin Larson

Patience - Cat Richmond

Ensemble

Angela Joy Bleke, Olivia Boyd, Winner Ekule, Elizabeth Gokey, Rosalia Johnson, Matthew Jordan, Sarah Kendall, Alexxis McDade, Phil Saganski, Fred Younger, Pamela Ziemlewicz