We sent our Associate Editor for Culture, Ben Goldsmith, down to The Savoy Opera Society to have a bit of a chat about their latest venture: The Sorcerer.

Savoy Opera Society: The Sourcerer

So Nic, what’s the Sorcerer about?

On a basic level it’s the story of an idealistic young man who thinks everyone in the village he lives in should know about the wonders of being in love. To do this, he hires a firm of old established sorcerers to drug them all with a love potion which will make them fall in love with the first person they see, and naturally some Midsummer Night’s Dream style mismatching then takes place.

On a slightly deeper level the show has undercurrents of political and social satire of Victorian class relations, Eugenic Theory and the Victorian fascination with the occult, something we’ve tried to make the most of by really going to town in the magical scenes.

Not everyone really knows what The ‘Savoy’ is all about. We’ve all heard of Pavarotti and the Opera House; how does The Savoy differ?

Savoy Opera is a blanket term for any operetta that was performed at The Savoy Theatre, to a large extent this means works by Gilbert & Sullivan, but is generally broadened to include works by other composers these days. The main difference in that, unlike opera, operettas are not completely sung. They also tend to be a lot lighter and more comical that a lot of romantic opera – they’re certainly considerably shorter!

The Savoy Opera lot have done a couple of other plays this year haven’t they? Is this one any different?

On the face of it this is just another G&S [Gilbert and Sullivan, for those not in the know], however as a creative team we’ve tried to do something different with it. A lot of people have the idea that Gilbert & Sullivan is all a bit dry and twee and the humour outdated. With The Sorcerer we’ve tried to dispel that feeling as much as possible, we’ve updated a few of the gags, but more importantly we’ve tried to focus on the magical aspects of the show and create an exciting and vibrant visual spectacle. On top of that there are some really quite dark undertones running through the narrative which you wouldn’t perhaps expect from an operetta. We’ve tried to use these to give the characters, and the story, a lot more depth which should give the whole production a lot more life and vitality than people might perhaps expect!

Does this play include any new faces, any RHUL stage débuts?

There’s one in the principal line up, Gilly Franklin, who’s a second year music student making her first stage appearance at Uni. There are also quite a few new faces in the chorus, as well as people you may recognise from other societies popping up now and again. It’s also been nice to give some bigger roles to people who’ve previously appeared in the chorus.

So, you’re the director, right? Why did you put yourself forward for the job?

I am the director, although I should probably add I’m one half of a directing duo (before Alex, my co-director kills me for not mentioning him!). I put myself forward for the job for a couple of reasons, one as simple as having directed much smaller scale things I wanted to have a crack at a large scale project. That said, my main aim was to take some regular G&S and do something different with it. I was sat in the pub last year talking to a couple of people that claimed there was no way to make Gilbert & Sullivan appropriate to a modern audience or to make any element of it ‘new’. So I thought, alright, I’ll soon see about that…

Does your cast enjoy working for you or are you a bit of a tyrant?

Oh no, I really can be quite a tyrant at times, thankfully I have Alex to balance out my bad cop routine, I do try to be as nice as possible and remember that I still need to be friends with these people once they show’s out of the way. That said it seems to be working, we had a really great rehearsal last week and I was consequently very happy and nice to the cast, the next run through was a shocker so I had to go back to being my usual dry and sarcastic self.

Ok, it’s your moment – tell us where and when the show is happening?

It’s in the SU main hall from Saturday 6th – Monday 8th. On Saturday and Monday the show starts at 7:30pm, and on Sunday we have a matinee at 1:30pm plus the evening show at 8:00. Tickets are £5 for students; I hope to see you there!