Ruddigore | September 17-27 |
Music by Arthur Sullivan, libretto by W.S. Gilbert
Directed by Richard Sewell
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Many years ago, the Baronets of Ruddigore were cursed by a witch and must commit a crime a day or be tortured to death. To escape this dreadful fate, the latest Baronet, Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd, disguises himself as simple farmer, Robin Oakapple. Oakapple is in love with the Rose Maybud and wants to wed but their “rosy” future is doomed when his true identity is revealed.
Production Team | |
Director & Set Designer | Richard Sewell |
Music Director | Rebecca Caron |
Choreographer | Adam P. Blais |
Costume Designer | Christine Nilles |
Lighting Designer | Jim Alexander |
Stage Manager | Katie Moshier … |
Cast | |
Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd | Connor McAndrews |
Richard Dauntless | Matt Andersen |
Sir Despard Murgatroyd | Timothy Madden |
Old Adam Goodheart | David Handley |
Rose Maybud | Laura Whittenberger |
Mad Margaret | Jamie Beth Weist |
Dame Hannah | Sabrina Yocono |
Sir Roderic Murgatroyd | Joe McGrann |
Zorah | Karen Lipovsky |
Ruth | Cynthia McGuire |
… |
Chorus of Bridesmaids | Men’s Chorus |
Ann-Marie Caron | Jeff Fairfield |
Carol Griffiths | John Lipovsky |
Karen Lipovsky | Joe McGrann |
Cynthia McGuire | Rick O’Brien |
Ellen O’Brien | Stefan Pakulski |
Peggy O’Kane | Andy Tolman |
… |
Musicians | |
Piano/Conductor | Rebecca Caron |
Flute | Blaise Spath |
Clarinet | Carol Furman |
Violin | Kate Gray … |
Reviews
TAM Shines with Gilbert & Sullivan’s ‘Ruddigore’
Gilbert and Sullivan satire: Ruddigore at Monmouth delivers barbs, banter
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From the Director
Most of Gilbert’s plays involve some political mockery (Queen Victoria was not amused). Ruddigore casts a wry glance at the British Navy but its main target is theatrical melodrama: Goodness and Wickedness for Dummies. Gilbert’s own life had moments of melodrama: at two, in 1835, he was kidnapped and his parents paid 25 Pounds Sterling to get him back; and in 1911 at 72 he was drowned, trying to rescue a young woman swimming beyond her depth. Between those unlikely events he lived a sober Victorian, then Edwardian, gentleman’s life, and for years was a successful librettist, humorist—and a bit of a misanthrope. The tart-to-sour sting of his humor gets wonderfully balanced by the sherbet of Sullivan’s music. If you are curious about those two, check out the fine, odd film, Topsy Turvy. It’s film with more careful accuracy than most.
And a little something about words…
“Strike” in theater is the closing clean-up; in a union shop it’s work stoppage in quest of fairness; in British naval jargon and in Ruddigore it means to surrender, lower one’s flag, “strike one’s colours.” Also, “bloody” in Queen Victoria’s world passed for inadmissibly obscene. A mere echo of that adjective in the title Ruddigore shocked some—the disapproving stir helped ticket sales. And “taradiddle?” It breached etiquette to speak of “a lie;” so the era came up with a string of
euphemisms—a “stretcher,” “playing a false fiddle,” a “story,” and a “taradiddle!”