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Patience (A
naive student working in the Club's souvenir shop) Lynda Smart
Chorus
of Patience |
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The Ladies re-enter desperately trying to attract the attention of Buntoni. He is trying to understand a football book. He finishes his reading but exhausted by all his effort, leaves for a rest. The ladies follow. The men are astonished that their charms have no effect on the lasses and go back into the stadium. Buntoni enters and admits that he is a sham. He confesses this to Patience and lets her into the secret of his true identity. He declares his love for Patience who says she cannot reciprocate but promises to keep his secret. Buntoni leaves and Angie arrives and listens to Patience's attempts to describe the purity in true love. She tells Angie of her one and only love. Patience meets Grosvenoir. He is, he admits, a boring Belgian footballer. He reveals that he was Patience's one and only love; he is unhappy at being infallible and being so perfect that he is loved by every woman who sees him. |
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Buntoni announces that as Patience has rejected him he will conduct a lottery of which he, Buntoni, will be the prize. The Ladies rush to buy a lottery ball ignoring the pleas of the men who then pretend to be indifferent to the result. Jane goes to purchase a ball but is interrupted by Patience, who has now decided to accept Buntoni's hand in marriage. She leaves with the delighted Buntoni. The Ladies revert to the former objects of their adoration, while Angie, Sophie and Ella are happy to turn to Ron, The Duke and The Major. This new found amity is confounded by the arrival of Grosvenoir who announces that he is foreign, athletic and perfect and once again the ladies reject their partners, declare devotion to Grosvenoir much to the fury of the men and not least to Buntoni who now realises that he has a rival. ACT 2 - Jane is discovered. The Ladies sing admiringly about Grosvenoir. Jane is the only one who has remained loyal to Buntoni but urges him not to wait too long in returning her affections. Grosvenoir enters with his adoring groupies and he makes plain the hopelessness of the lasses love for him. Grosvenoir and Patience declare their love for each other and he leaves. Buntoni enters followed by Jane. Buntoni decides that to regain the lasses' admiration, he needs to become as boring as Grosvenoir. Jane agrees. |
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Meanwhile the Duke, The Major and Ron have decided that in order to re-attract the ladies they need to get into physical shape. Angie and Sophie are impressed and think that the three men may have a chance. Ron has advised the players that they need to get fit so as to re-attract their supporters and the players are discovered bemoaning the fitness regime while in the bath. Grosvenoir and Buntoni meet and Buntoni tells him to stop being boring and become flamboyant (Buntoni intends doing the opposite). When Buntoni threatens to find out why Grosvenoir got the sack he readily agrees to the change of person. Patience is delighted because Buntoni will be a nicer person. Grosvenoir and his adoring ladies (now also sartorially changed) enter. By dint of perverse logic all ends happily with everyone marrying partners of their choice except one gentleman who stays single! I wonder who? Watch carefully! |
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THE HISTORY OF PATIENCE (A Game of Two Halves) THE GASLEAKTHEATRE COMPANY was formed in 1987 by David Irving and is based in Melton Mowbray. The name "Gasleak" is derived from the acronym Gilbert And Sullivan, Light Entertainment And Kids, reflecting perfectly the range of performance types undertaken in which "Kids" are always welcome and actively encouraged to get involved in every aspect of the Company's shows. However, since its conception, the predominant theme of Gasleak has been the works of Gilbert and Sullivan an adventurous double bill of Trial by Jury and The Sorcerer as well as Pirates of Penzance and Ruddigore. Always wishing to present the Savoy Operas in a fresh way, one evening over a post-performance pint in the Theatre bar, David announced that the next show was likely to be The Mikado and that he was thinking of giving it something of a makeover. Such was the enthusiasm that by the time the glasses were empty and the tears of laughter had been wiped away, the format and characters were established and The Corporate Mikado or Titipu PIC was born. To complete the new script, David teamed up with professional actor and writer, John Hurton. They both firmly agreed at the outset that for any adaptation they produced, although the libretto would be changed, the score must not. Spurred on by the positive reaction, the writing team began looking through the canon for another opera suitable for modernisation. They soon agreed on Patience, the story of aesthetic poets and rapturous maidens which, although it contains some of Sullivan's most beautiful melodies, due to its subject matter is the most dated and consequently one of the least performed of all the G & S operas. Yet, the underlying themes of the piece, the intense rivalry between two individuals and the fickleness of their admirers, are still relevant today. The game of soccer has become the equivalent of the aesthetic "new religion" of the nineteenth century and so placed the story around the ailing North of England football club, Pithead Town. Never ones to rest on their laurels, David and John hope to repeat their success with an adaptation of HMS. Pinafore, removing it from the water and setting it firmly on dry land in the shape of an English public school. Anyone interested in finding out more about The Gasleak Theatre Company or its available productions can visit the Gasleak Theatre Company website www.gasleak-theatre.co.uk
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