Gilbert & Sullivan return to Normansfield Theatre

11:44am Thursday 6th March 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

When Anthony Baker first walked into Normansfield Hospital Theatre, it was as the proverbial child in a sweetshop.

The opera designer and not-so-secret Gilbert & Sullivan fan had been researching the whereabouts of 22 paintings from the original Savoy production of Ruddigore, six of which still hang on Normansfield's walls.

But he found more than he bargained for when he came to have a look. "Here was this extraordinary Victorian theatre complete with all its origianl decor, scenery and equipment," says Baker. "And my first thought was: someone should be putting on productions here. Why is nothing going on?"

Why indeed? Hard to deny Normansfield's enchanting power, with its scarlet painted curtains, gilt arts and crafts panels and beautiful forest glade backdrop, good enough to walk into.

Built in 1868 by Victorian physician John Langdon Down, the theatre was part of a forward-thinking centre for people with learning disabilities that could teach modern therapists a thing or two. Also loaned out to local dramatists, the theatre hosted its last professional production in 1909.

Until Baker saw it, that is. "Theatre is a living thing and in order to understand the space, you have to see people performing live. It's not a museum."

Thus last year's production of Gilbert & Sullivan's Patience, directed by Baker and produced by Chris Crowcroft, who met in a production of Pirates of Penzance for Grovenor Light Opera Society.

A satire of the Aesthetic movement that influenced Normansfield's elaborate decoration, Patience went down a treat with G&S fans and arts journalists alike, many of whom had been previously unaware of the theatre's existence.

And now Baker and Crowcroft are back with a Gilbert & Sullivan's first ever collaboration, Thespis, the typically Gilbertian story of a troupe of travelling actors forced to deputise for the aging Gods on Mount Olympus.

For such mythical subject matter, Thespis has built up its own legendary status over the years, namely as a failure.

But, says Baker, the show played for a respectable three months at the Gaiety Theatre over Christmas 1871 and only slipped through the net because of G&S's later, bigger hits.

"It's important to know this is not a Savoy opera," says musical director Tim Henty, who has recreated Sullivan's fragmentary score for this revival. "But you can see where Gilbert and Sullivan were going with its silliness."

And Crowcroft agrees: "The topsy-turviness is definitely there."

Actor-manager Thespis will be played at Normansfield by seasoned Savoyard, Richard Suart, best known for his scene-stealing "little list" in Jonathan Miller's endlessly revived White Mikado at English National Opera.

The attraction for Suart and the rest of the cast, says Baker, ("because it's certainly not the money") is the chance to stamp their own mark on a part.

"They spend their lives doing G&S roles which have a huge history of different performers and here they are with something that has no history of professional performace since 1872."

A G&S gem neglected for the past century, performed in a treasure-trove of a theatre all but ignored for the same period of time - I call that the perfect match.

Thespis, Normansfield Theatre, Langdon Down Centre, 2A Langdon Park, Teddington, Thespis, Saturday, March 8, 7.30pm, Sunday March 9, 3pm and 7.30pn, call 0208 943 3849, visit langdondowncentre.org.uk.