Iolanthe

Somerset Opera makes a welcome return to the Regal Theatre, Minehead to perform Iolanthe, a comic opera in two acts, by Gilbert and Sullivan.

The fairy Iolanthe has been banished from fairyland because she married a mortal. Her son, Strephon, wants to marry Phyllis, but as a ward of court she needs her guardian, the Lord Chancellor’s, permission. However, the Lord Chancellor, and half the peers in the House of Lords, are sighing after her. Soon the peers and the fairies are at virtual war.

With a melodious score and brilliant wit, Iolanthe satirises many aspects of British government, law and society. The House of Lords is lampooned as a bastion of the ineffective, privileged and dim-witted and the political party system and other institutions are mocked. Yet the criticism is couched among such amiable absurdities that it is all received as good fun.