Patience
(or "Bunthorne's Bride")
Neptune Theatre Liverpool, January 2004
Cast and Production Team
| Bunthorne |
Jonathan Taylor |
| Grosvenor |
Brian Tubb |
| Colonel Calverley |
John Bowen |
| Duke of Dunstable |
Michael Kennedy |
| Major Murgatroyd |
Matt Callaghan |
| Solicitor |
Keith Tattersall |
| Patience |
Rachel Ashton |
| Lady Jane |
Helen Fieldsend |
| Lady Angela |
Christine Harland |
| Lady Saphir |
Ceri Wilde |
| Lady Ella |
Iris Kelly |
| Producer |
John Hilton |
| Musical Director |
Brian Smith |
| Choreographer |
Ruth Fraser |
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Photos
Mainly taken at the dress rehearsal. All photos are copyright
of Peter Robinson (Ross Photography) and may not be reproduced or
printed without permission.
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Grosvenor & Patience
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Twenty love-sick maidens
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Dragoon guards
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Lady Jane with Patience
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Lady Jane unwatched
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Some of the company
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A magnet hung in a hardware shop
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Fierce guards
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Lady Jane on the pull
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The poetical life
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The modern look
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Love-sick no more
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The company
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Synopsis of the Plot
ACT ONE
Reginald Bunthorne (a fleshly poet) is loved by
20 aesthetic maidens who carol at his door.
Bunthorne, however, loves Patience, the village
milkmaid. Meanwhile, the 35th. Dragoon Guards,
who return to the scene of their former triumphs
to be re-united with their fiancées, find that
those ladies have become aesthetic and
transferred their affections to Bunthorne.
Add to all this Archibald
Grosvenor (an idyllic poet) who reveals himself
to Patience as her childhood sweetheart, and we
have a confusing story of country folk. Poor
Patience (the Clarrie Grundy of the village) is
totally confused. She doesn't like poetry,
understand aestheticism or even know what love
is! Having been told by Lady Angela that love
must be unselfish, Patience decides that she
ought to marry Bunthorne; the ladies then return
to their Dragoons.
This potentially happy ending
is upset by the appearance of Grosvenor, causing
the maidens to desert the Dragoons yet again and
all ends in even more confusion.
ACT TWO
Lady Jane (a mature aesthetic maiden) is the only one who remains faithful to Bunthorne, the
remainder being now totally devoted to Grosvenor.
The officers of the Dragoon Guards decide that
they must become aesthetic in order to win back
their fiancées, and in that they are successful.
Lady Jane persuades Bunthorne
to challenge Grosvenor on his own ground and to
beat him on it, which he does. The dénouement
brings one or two more surprises in a typically
Gilbertian finale.
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