The Yeomen of the Guard

Saturday was a fun day with MITGSP friends.

In the afternoon we held a costume build, since there was no rehearsal scheduled. I went along and helped Kelsey, our costume designer, and several others cut fabric into appropriate shapes. I cut most of Jack Point's costume and part of the Yeomen's trousers.

From there we proceeded to Le's Vietnamese restaurant in Harvard square, for some yummy pho.

Our final destination was Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert and Sullivan Players' production of The Yeomen of the Guard. Some have said that it's unfortunate that we're putting on the same show this semester, but I think the only particularly noticeable effect has been an advantage: that we've been able to use some of the same orchestra members.

Their theatre is very different from ours. We perform in a room that is very big and rectangular: we have to construct the stage from scratch and erect platforms on which to place chairs. They have a rectangular proscenium arch with some space behind it, in front of which is a small semi-circular area around which the audience curves. The seating does feel very round, since the house, though larger than ours, is still relatively small. They have an orchestra level but we were on the balcony.

The show began with a very impressive opening solo by Phoebe Meryll (Cassandra Rasmussen '13). This show is Gilbert and Sullivan's only to begin with a solo instead of a chorus. Her performance left me expecting an extremely high quality of show, but it turned out that she was (in my opinion) the best overall performer in the show and the quality was merely moderately high. Wilfred (Ben Morris '09)'s characterisation was strong but odd: he spent all of his time walking around with bent knees.

The chorus of townspeople was very small and very female, which I thought really weakened 'Tower warder', but the yeomen were unexpectedly strong in their half of that chorus. Fairfax (Ian Clark '12) was a wonderful singer, but his acting was hit and miss. I thought he was very good in the act I finale, when disguised as Leonard Meryll and feeling rather uncomfortable as a yeoman, but unconvincing in the episodes where he is meant to be flirting with both his "sister" Phoebe and his secret wife Elsie (Marit Medefind '12).

I was disappointed with Elsie. Having been to many shows and sat on several audition boards, I have heard many soprani and she just didn't have the presence I like to hear in a lead soprano. Part of me feels I should be right behind her. Harvard has a stronger student casting tradition than us, and I feel that ours should be stronger, and lead soprano roles in particular form one area where I think we assume we'll be casting outside the student body and should be more willing to consider a student. Assuming that the singer cast at Elsie was the best of the students who auditioned, I do indeed support the casting choice, but that doesn't prevent me from expressing my opinion that her performance wasn't of proportionate quality to that of the other principals.

The singing was generally accomplished: Point (Daniel Erickson '14) was sometimes a weak link but made up for it with his acting. Unfortunately the orchestra was not always confident and seemed to be out of time with the singers more often than in time. The stage direction (Devon Dunn '12) perhaps took second place to the singing: it made it easy to focus on the music but only had a few particularly memorable moments.

In short: much fun, but I won't be going back for a second helping next weekend.