LIVE THEATRE: Yeovil Amateur Operatic Society prepares for Iolanthe

THE Yeovil Amateur Operatic Society has many Gilbert & Sullivan fans who have been clamouring for another G&S show since The Gondoliers was performed six years ago.

So the society’s latest offering is Iolanthe, a comic opera, the seventh out of 14 Savoy operas, written at the height of Gilbert & Sullivan’s creative powers and first seen in November 1882.

A year which included the birth of A. A. Milne, Virginia Wolf and Stravinsky, the introduction of electricity into buildings for the purposes of illumination (including the sparkling Iolanthe in the Savoy Theatre), the first performance of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, false teeth patented and the “death” of English Cricket in the Test match between Australia and England that later spawned The Ashes. All have survived to one degree or another!

Gilbert had taken pot shots at the aristocracy before, but in this "fairy opera," the House of Lords is lampooned as a bastion of the ineffective, privileged and dim-witted, by a band of fairies. No mention of cocaine and ladies of disrepute, but we could wonder if things have changed? The political party system and other institutions also come in for a dose of satire.

Yet, both author and composer managed to couch the criticism among such bouncy, amiable absurdities that it is all received as good fun.

Strephon, played by Beauty & the Beast lead Paul Graham, wants to marry Phyllis, a Ward of Chancery and played by the ever versatile Naomi Riglar. Phyllis does not know that Strephon is half fairy - his upper half and his legs are mortal! - and when she sees Strephon kissing a seemingly young woman, she assumes the worst. But her "rival" turns out to be none other than Strephon's own mother, Iolanthe, a fairy and, of course, fairies never grow old.

Iolanthe is played by Elly Driver, who gave us the shy, retiring Sister Mary Robert in the recent Sister Act and then blew us away with her powerful rendering of The Life I Never Led. Elly is a comparative newcomer to performing, being very shy herself as a youngster, and her first show was The Sound of Music just four years ago, when she played Sister Sophia.

She was encouraged massively to give it a go by her mother-in-law Sheila Driver, the well-known local choreographer, director and long-time performer, and later, Elly joined her brother-in-law, Shaun Driver, on the stage in Me & My Girl.

Elly is tremendously proud of her children, Leah and Joshua, and has always been a busy mum, supporting their progress on stage in YAOS, Castaways and Yeovil Youth Theatre.

Iolanthe is on from Monday, October 5, 2015, through to Saturday, October 10, 2015, and tickets are available from the Octagon Box Office.

Performances start nightly at 7.30pm, while there is also a 2.30pm matinee on October 10.

Tickets are priced £14 for the opening night and Saturday matinee, while it will be £17 for all other performances.

For more information – click on the Iolanthe advert on the homepage of this website or phone 01935-422884.

PHOTOS: Cast members of Yeovil Amateur Operatic Society's forthcoming production of Iolanthe.

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