Patience in Sydney's North

Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Sydney presents Patience: a timeless and hilarious musical satire on fame, fandom, art and pretension. With a healthy dose of romance!

And it all happens at Shore School in North Sydney from 30 Sept to 8 October, with preview performances in Narrabeen and Bundanoon (18 and 24 Sept respectively).

Patience may be a virtue, but in this comedy of lovesick fans, phony pop idols and macho men, Patience is also a milkmaid – a kind, straightforward country girl who is happy to call a spade a spade.

When the opera opens, twenty lovesick women are refusing the attentions of their macho soldier boyfriends in favour of the pretentious, trendy poet Bunthorne (a wicked parody of Oscar Wilde, Swinburne and other turn-of-the-20^th-century ‘aesthetic poets’).  Bunthorne, in love with the simple dairymaid Patience, reveals to her that he is a fraud; however, her temptation (against her better judgement) to fall in love - as everyone else seems to be - is interrupted by the timely arrival of a rival poet, Grosvenor – who turns out to be her childhood sweetheart! All the ladies fall for him – of course (much to the men’s disgust) - and all hell breaks loose as the curtain falls on Act 1. With everyone apparently in love with the wrong person, the second act offers much confusion, hilarity – and romance. Ultimately, it is selflessness – as modelled by Patience – that unknots the complications. Pretence is renounced and true love found by all – that is all except Bunthorne himself. Everyone is matched up… but “nobody is Bunthorne’s bride!”

One of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most popular operettas, Patience ran to almost 600 straight performances in its original London season, only rivalled among their 16 Savoy Operas by The Mikado. Its brilliant satire of insane pop fandom, pretentiousness in art, machismo and the trendy love of all things pastoral is as cutting and apt today as ever!

Directed by Elizabeth Lowrencev, with musical director Rod Mounjed, Patience stars Bregitte Lahood and Samanta Lestavel alternating in the title roles, Dean Sinclair as Bunthorne, Mitch Bryson as Grosvenor, Rebecca Hart as Lady Jane, Ella Arundelle as Lady Angela, Suzanne Chin and Kate Phillips as Lady Saphir, Amy Balales and Sarah Prestwidge as Lady Ella, Anthony Mason as the Colonel, Matt Cobb-Clark and Andrew Stark as the Major and Spencer Darby as the Duke of Dunstable. Plus a large chorus and full orchestra!

PATIENCE plays Friday-Sunday from 30 September to 8 October at Shore School North Sydney.
Plus preview performances (piano accompanied) 18 Sept 2pm at Narrabeen’s Montgomery Pavilion Theatre
and 24 Sept at 2pm and 7.30pm at the Soldiers Memorial Hall Bundanoon.

Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Sydney presents
PATIENCE or Bunthorne’s Bride – by Gilbert and Sullivan (in the School Holidays!)
Fri 30 Sept 8pm | Sat 1 Oct 8pm | Sun 2 Oct 2pm | Fri 7 Oct 8pm | Sat 8 Oct 2pm and 8pm
Smith Auditorium, Shore School, William Street North Sydney (full orchestra)
Previews (with piano accompaniment):
Sat 18 Sept 2pm at Montgomery Pavilion Theatre, RSL Anzac Village, Veterans Pde Narrabeen;
Sun 24 Sept 2pm and 7.30pm at the Soldiers’ Memorial Hall, Railway Ave Bundanoon.
*Early Bird book by 31 Aug! Tickets for North Sydney performances $40 ($35*) | conc $35 ($32*) |
child $25 ($22*) | family $95* | groups 14+ $35pp (10+ $32pp*). Previews $25 | conc $20 |child $15
More information and bookings www.gsosydney.com.au(Bundanoon bookings Gale ph 4883 7195)

Photographer: Ray Wing Lun

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