'Trial' run

Published on November 23, 2007

The local TheatreWorks production of ‘Trial by Jury’, features costuming that is more contemporary than the original Victorian setting of the Gilbert and Sullivan musical.

English-language theatre fans are in for double-treat this fortnight. After Bangkok Community Theatre's "A Christmas Carol" wraps up on Sunday at AUA Auditorium, it will be time for Gilbert and Sullivan's "Trial by Jury", starting on Wednesday at the British Club.

Angela Daniel, the co-founder of TheatreWorks and the director of "Jury", says the success of "The Pirates of Penzance", which TheatreWorks staged with Bangkok Community Theatre last year, pointed to a high demand for more English-language musicals and light operettas.

"Initially we had planned on six performances of 'Pirates', but we were sold out within three days. And so we scheduled another two performances. All eight performances were eventually sold out," Daniel says. "Based on this success, we looked for another Gilbert and Sullivan show to perform. 'Trial by Jury' is ideal for dinner-theatre because it is performed with a single set, in one act and is roughly an hour in length. This means everyone can relax, enjoy their dinner, and the show, and still be home at a reasonable time. 'Trial by Jury' is often staged with another G&S show as a companion piece, most usually 'HMS Pinafore'. However, for dinner-theatre this would make for a very long evening."

"Trial by Jury" is the earliest surviving collaboration between WS Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. "In reality, their first collaboration was 'Thespis', but following its performance in 1871, the musical score was never published and sadly, is now lost, except for one song that was published separately, and interestingly, re-used in 'Pirates'," Daniel says. 

It is the only Gilbert and Sullivan operetta to be staged in one act, and the only one with no dialogue. A humorous spoof of the law and the legal profession - it's about a breach of promise of marriage and it is based on Gilbert's brief experience as a barrister, Daniel says. "The music is also satirical in itself, 'sending-up' various composers and musical styles. It never ceases to amaze me how funny Gilbert's and Sullvian's spoofs and satires are still today, some 130 years after they were written. All the characters are wonderfully eccentric and slightly surreal."

Daniel and her TheatreWorks collaborator Bonnie Zellerbach staged this show once before with Bangkok Community Theatre in 1999, also at the British Club. Five members of that cast are in the new show, albeit in different roles.

"At that time we staged it quite traditionally in Victorian costumes," Daniel says. "This time we've modernised it somewhat, and had a bit more fun with some of the interpretation.  As the show is quite short, we've also taken some liberties with the score and expanded it a little to include some other Gilbert and Sullivan classics. This practice, along with modernising some of the verses, seems to be becoming a tradition around the world.

"I've also seen two video versions of 'Trial'. One is a 1970's British version - with the now-deceased English comedian Frankie Howerd as the Judge - which was also staged quite traditionally with Victorian costumes. The other is an 'Opera Australia' version performed in 2005 and staged very much in present times. Both of them are quite different in interpretation, and ours is different again. The music, however, doesn't change very much from one version to the other. It is already so clever there is no need or desire to alter it."

Rehearsals have been going well, Daniel says. "However, as with 'Pirates', some of the Victorian 'old English' language is difficult to learn, even for those who have English as their native tongue. And - again, as is traditional in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas - the show includes a 'patter' song which is a real tongue twister and done at an alarmingly fast pace. The cast have had some fun getting their tongues around this."

"Trial by Jury" runs from Wednesday until December 1 and on December 3 and 4 at the British Club on  Soi Silom 18. Dinner-theatre performances start at 7.30pm. Tickets are Bt950 per person, inclusive of three-course dinner. Each table seats 10 and parties of less than 10 may share a table.

For reservations, call (089) 006 5259 or (081) 869 1104, or see www.sala.net/theatreworks.

Pawit Mahasarinand  

The writer can be contacted at pawit.m@chula.ac.th.