IOLANTHE (or the Peer and the Peri)

Описание: Performance: October 3rd, 2015, evening
[Corrections: the role of Celia is played by Kay Pere, & the role of Iolanthe by Julie Rumbold]

Twenty-five years ago, Iolanthe, a fairy, had committed the capital crime of marrying a mortal, The Queen of the Fairies had commuted the death sentence to banishment for life -- on condition that Iolanthe leave her husband without explanation and never see him again. Her son, Strephon has grown up as a shepherd, half fairy, half mortal. Strephon loves Phyllis, a shepherdess who is also a Ward in Chancery. She returns his love, and knows nothing of his mixed origin.

All the fairies dearly loved Iolanthe and prevail upon the Queen to recall her from exile. The Queen recalls her from her banishment and welcomes her back into the fold. Strephon joins the glad reunion and announces his intention to marry Phyllis in spite of the Lord Chancellor, her guardian, who refuses permission. The Queen approves, and pledges her support to Strephon should he ever need it.

The entire House of Lords is enamored of Phyllis. They appeal to the Lord Chancellor to give her to whichever Peer she may select. The Lord Chancellor is also suffering the pangs of love for Phyllis, but feels he has no legal right to assign her to himself. Phyllis declines to marry a Peer. Strephon pleads his cause in court again, but in vain. Iolanthe enters and holds a tender conversation to console her son. But she, like all fairies, looks like a girl of seventeen. Happening upon their conversation Phyllis and the Peers misinterpret the situation. They ridicule Strephon's claim that Ioanthe is his mother. Phyllis, outraged by Strephon's tender attentions to another woman, shuns him and declares that she will marry either Lord Mountararat or Lord Tolloller.

Strephon calls upon the fairies, to come to his assistance. They confront the Peers and try to set things right for Strephon. But the Peers are not buying the story that Iolanthe is Strephon's mother. They rudely dismiss and disrespect the fairies. To exact revenge the Queen makes Strephon a member of Parliament, and backed by their supreme authority endows him with the power to carry any measure he chooses to introduce, including a bill to throw Dukedom open to competitive examination.. The Peers, seeing their doom approaching, appeal to the fairies to desist. But to no avail.

Time passes. And to the great dismay of the Peers, Strephon has succeeded in passing measures that are anathema to them. The fairies explain to the Peers that it is all their doing. But they have also fallen in love with the Peers. Finding this out, the Queen reproaches her subjects for their weakness. She acknowledges her own weakness for a sentry, Private Willis, but asserts that she will not let herself succumb to her feelings for him.

In the mean time, Lord Mountararat and Lord Tolloller try to decide which of them should marry Phyllis. They opine that if either marries Phyllis, family tradition will require the other to kill his rival. Both therefore renounce Phyllis in the name of friendship. The Lord Chancellor, after considerable struggle, pleads his own cause before himself, and convinces himself that the law will allow him to marry Phyllis.

Once again encountering Phyllis, Strephon reveals to her that his mother is a fairy. She now realizes why the assumed "other woman" Strephon was seen with looked so young. She is convinced that it was a misunderstanding and they are reconciled. But they still need the Lord Chancellor's permission to marry. They persuade Iolanthe to appeal to the Lord Chancellor. After trying but failing in her efforts to do so, she reveals her identity to him (as his thought-to-be dear departed wife). But by doing so she has now once again violated the Queen's conditions and condemned herself to death.

The other fairies however have married their respective Peers. They intercede on Iolanthe's behalf and tell the Queen that if Iolanthe must die so shall they all die too. As a remedy, the Lord Chancellor suggests the legal expedient of inserting a single word to make the law read that every fairy who does not marry a mortal shall die. The Queen corrects the scroll, and asks Private Willis to save her life by marrying her. She transforms the Peers into fairies. They fly away with their fairy wives to Fairyland, leaving the House of Peers to be replenished according to intelligence rather than birth.
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Videography by Larry Engler, Just Shoot Me Videos
http://www.justshootmevideo.com/

Song subtitles: John Freedman