IOLANTHE

Wilton’s Music Hall

★★★★★

“there is something profoundly restorative about surrendering to such unashamed silliness”

What fun! Gilbert and Sullivan’s satirical masterpiece has lost none of its bite. Charles Court Opera’s glorious revival of Iolanthe at Wilton’s Music Hall proves that lampooning the House of Lords as a collection of mediocre chancers is as fresh, accurate and necessary today as it was in 1882. This is a triumph. It is riotously funny, musically accomplished, and politically sharp.

The plot concerns Strephon (Matthew Palmer), a half-fairy parliamentary groundsman in love with Phyllis (Llio Evans), a ward of Chancery. When the Lord Chancellor (Matthew Kellett) and the entire House of Peers also fall for Phyllis, the fairies intervene with chaotic results. The absurdity is the point, putting the lie to the establishment’s pomposity. Gilbert’s libretto skewers the sheer ridiculousness of hereditary power with a precision that remains devastatingly accurate. By contrast, the moving tenderness of the love songs, both between the romantic couple and between mother and son, shows what Gilbert and Sullivan considered important. The costumes, designed by Molly Fraser, could walk straight from the Wilton’s stage into the Lords’ chamber today.

John Savournin’s direction, revived by James Hurley, balances comedy with genuine warmth, whilst David Eaton’s musical direction draws sparkling performances from the Charles Court Opera Chamber Orchestra. The standout musical performances come from George Ireland on keyboard and Tim Taylorson on flute. They deliver Sullivan’s score, from the ethereal fairy music to the bombastic march of the peers, with both precision and joy.

The cast is uniformly excellent, but the standout performance comes from Catrine Kirkman as Lady Mountararat. In a clever gender-flip of the traditionally male role, Kirkman delivers a magnificent creation somewhere between Margaret Thatcher and Lady Hale: all imperious authority, withering disdain, and immaculate comic timing. Matthew Kellett as the Lord Chancellor delivers a tour de force of patter and pathos in his “Nightmare Song”. Eleanor O’Driscoll is a touching Iolanthe and Meriel Cunningham commands the stage as the Fairy Queen with regal authority.

Molly Fraser’s costume and set design beautifully suits Wilton’s atmospheric Victorian interior. Ben Pickersgill’s lighting transforms the space from fairy glade to parliamentary chamber with elegant simplicity, whilst Merry Holden’s choreography makes the most of a limited cast on a small stage.

This is clearly a production on a modest budget. The chorus and orchestra are stripped down to the bone, yet this constraint becomes a virtue, bringing clarity and intimacy to Sullivan’s orchestrations. Such limitations make the triumph all the more remarkable.

Gilbert and Sullivan is not currently fashionable, but perhaps it’s just what we need. In our era with unprecedented levels of anxiety and depression, there is something profoundly restorative about surrendering to such unashamed silliness. It is impossible to watch Iolanthe without cheering up.

With the upper chamber still stuffed with cronies and hereditary hangers-on, Gilbert’s century-old satire feels not like a museum piece but a call to arms. Unmissable.

IOLANTHE

Wilton’s Music Hall

Reviewed on 19th February 2026

by Elizabeth Botsford

Photography by Craig Fuller

IOLANTHE

★★★★

“There is an assured originality to Regan’s take on the proceedings”

Following on from ‘HMS Pinafore’, ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ and ‘The Mikado’ Sasha Regan continues with the winning formula of an all-male cast with her revival of “Iolanthe”. The triumph of this concept is that it transcends the ‘gimmick factor’ of men trying to be girls. Instead, each member of the fine cast fully inhabits their character, irrespective of gender. While remaining faithful to the spirit of Gilbert and Sullivan, there is an assured originality to Regan’s take on the proceedings.

Torches flash in the darkness of the auditorium as a motley crew make their way to the stage as though breaking into an old schoolhouse. They discover an old copy of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Iolanthe”, from where the journey through the absurd and gloriously silly story begins. Twenty-five years previous to the action of the opera, Iolanthe, a fairy, had committed the capital crime of marrying a mortal. The Queen of the Fairies, however, commuted her sentence to banishment, on condition that Iolanthe leave her husband and never see him again. Her son, Strephon, now twenty-five has grown up in the mortal world despite being half fairy and is engaged to marry Phyllis – the ward of the Lord Chancellor. But being a mere shepherd, he is not thought worthy by Phyllis’ guardian. Further mayhem ensues when Iolanthe, who has not aged in the quarter of a century, has her exile revoked and is reunited with her son.

As haywire as Gilbert’s libretto is, it is juxtaposed with perhaps the most beautiful of Arthur Sullivan’s scores. This combination makes for a compelling evening. Musical Director, Richard Baker provides the sole accompaniment at the piano, a device that highlights the melodies and allows the voices to take centre stage. That said, though, there were moments that begged for a more varied sound track to stir up the dynamics. But what it lacked in light and shade was compensated for by the quality of the singers. Close your eyes for a moment and it is easy to forget that this is an all-male cast. There is a purity to the finely tuned falsetto that is genuinely moving.

Christopher Finn’s ‘Iolanthe’ has an extraordinary quality to his voice that stands him out, despite having a lesser share of the spotlight than the title character merits. But it is very much an ensemble piece; and each actor, whether in the male or female registers handle the harmonies and the quick-fire patter of the lyrics with ease. And all this marvellous singing is done with their tongues firmly in their cheeks. Only a top notch team can afford not to take itself too seriously in such a relaxed manner. Mixing a fairy story with political satire is always going to be a tall order but this show wins us over with its own eccentric mix of magic and mastery.

Reviewed by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Harriet Buckingham

Tag Archives: Iolanthe

IOLANTHE

★★★★★

Wilton’s Music Hall

IOLANTHE

Wilton’s Music Hall

★★★★★

“there is something profoundly restorative about surrendering to such unashamed silliness”