Gondoliers

by

WS Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan

The Gondoliers, or, The King of Barataria, was the twelfth opera written together by Gilbert and Sullivan. Opening on December 7, 1889 at the Savoy Theatre, The Gondoliers ran for 554 performances, and was the last of the G&S operas that would achieve wide popularity. Its lilting score has, perhaps, the most sparkling and tuneful music of them all and calls, perhaps, for the most dancing.Gilbert returns, in this opera, to satire of snobbery regarding class distinctions and begins his fascination, which will play an even larger part in the next opera, Utopia Limited, with the "stock company act" using the absurd convergence of natural persons and legal entities. Again setting his work comfortably far away from mother England, Gilbert is emboldened to level somewhat harsh criticism on the noble class, and the institution of the monarchy itself.

June 26 - July 15

Loves Labours Lost

by

William Shakespeare

King Ferdinand and his three attendant lords have vowed to spend three years in solitude, committed to learning and abstaining from the pleasures of the flesh. The Princess of France appears at his Court, together with her three ladies-in-waiting, to negotiate the return of Aquitaine from Navarre. Of course, being men, the Navarrese fall head over heels with the women; and of course, being women, the French are much more interested in the politics of their visit.

June 26 -  July 15

 

Nine Parts of Desire

 

by

 

Heather Raffo

 

 

A well-crafted, absorbing account of Islamic women's lives as seen through the eyes of a secular-minded, Australian-born feminist journalist. Wall Street Journal Middle East correspondent Brooks describes with sensitivity and clarity her conversations and relationships with Islamic women, from the blue-jean-clad, American-born queen of Jordan to a devout Palestinian who shares her abusive husband with another woman in a four-room hovel with 14 children. Many of the obstacles she describes are well known: Some Islamic women are not allowed to show flesh or pray out loud in public (their voices are too arousing and could provoke unholy thoughts in men); many professions are closed to women; and severe sexual double standards still exist.

July 30 - Aug 17

 

 

Master Harold...and the boys

by

Athol  Fugard

 

The great South African playwright Athol Fugard wrote Master Harold…and the boys in 1982, when apartheid was still alive and well in his homeland, where the play was banned. It is based on an incident in his own childhood in 1950. Yet decades later, in a changed world, its message about the corrosive effects of racism on human relationships feels as searing and urgent as it did when it was first performed.

It's a classic example of a play where a single room – in this case, a tea shop in Port Elizabeth, stands for an entire world. Here we meet Willie and Sam – the boys of the title – waiters in the café, practising their moves on a quiet rainy afternoon for a forthcoming ballroom dancing contest.

 

July 30 - Aug 17