Patience

[Many Punch cartoons satirised æsthetes. Both Patience and The Colonel are mentioned here. A tiny, pennant-waving Gilbert peeks out of Sullivan's backpack at lower right]

Towards the end of last month, Gilbert & Sullivan time came around again with the Godalming Operatic Society's production of 'Patience', second only to the 'Mikado' in terms of the length of its original run of 170+409 performances. The second and larger chunk in the Savoy theatre, where it was the first theatrical production to have the considerable benefit of electric light, eliminating the the unpleasant fug created by gas lights. This also from Wikipedia at reference 1.

Patience consists mainly of poking fun at the aesthetic movement in the persons of Algernon Charles Swinburne and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, with the link to the slightly later Oscar Wilde being forged later. A lot of stage time is given to the chorus of the poets' rapturous maidens - well enough on their first outing, but palling a little as the piece goes on. I admit to a little nodding in the first half, but was fully alert for the second.

The (cold) day had started with my cycling off to Sainsbury's to get some white bread to take with kabanosi by way of a light lunch. The kabanosi from the Selfridge's food hall noticed at reference 3. In the event, the white bread was fresh, adequate rather than good. But better than brown in the context. The kabanosi themselves were fine, if not quite up to what I remember from the olden days. The rosy memories of older age.

We thoroughly failed to present our tickets on my telephone at the door; they were there, but it just took too long to get them up, and were reduced to using the paper tickets I had printed off just in case.

Thorndyke Theatre maybe three quarters full for this matinee performance. A noticeable number of older gentlemen wearing tweedy jackets - a style of jacket I once made a lot of use of, but gradually fell away after the demise of Dunns. They were far too expensive at Lester Bowden (the late lamented fancy clothes shop in Epsom), and the charity shop supply of jackets in my size eventually fell away. I think I own just the one now, but am more likely to go out with an anorak or a windcheater over a sweater.

An orchestra of 25 or so. A cast of around 15 gents and 15 ladies. A nicely painted woodland backdrop with matching flats. Good costumes. And the lead performances struck me as very polished. I don't think that we have been to this opera before, but some of the music seemed familiar nonetheless: perhaps it had cropped up in other contexts, perhaps the film 'Topsy Turvey', which we have watched several times. Once again, impressed with the way that Sullivan could put catchy music to pre-existing words.

All in all, a proper theatrical production, which is more than we can manage at the Epsom Playhouse these days, largely given over to tribute acts of a different sort.

A snap from the programme. From which I learn, inter alia, that Godalming has a mayor while Leatherhead, which I would have thought was once a bigger if not older town, does not. Guarding a crossing of the Mole and all that. At least that is how it looks.

And another. For some reason not very legible on the left, but I learn on the right that the society is regular in its habits, cycling through the canon on a reasonably regular basis. 

How much digital intelligence would it take for the telephone to recognise printed text and to sharpen it up a bit vari-focally? Or perhaps that might better be a job for Microsoft's Photos application, at the point of final delivery? But then, does this application get a look in when web pages are being displayed? Ask a geek.

Cold concrete and warm wood, from the era of shuttered concrete. Which I continue to like, despite the sniffing of people who write about that sort of thing. Finding the other two flights of public stairs noticed recently is left as an exercise for the reader.

After the show, we strolled up to the Leatherhead Wetherspoon's, busy this late Saturday afternoon. Quite different tone from the Epsom Wetherspoon's, perhaps reflecting Leatherhead's time as a London overspill destination after the second world war.

Steak and kidney pudding for me, with peas and chips. Not bad, and very good value, but not really quite big enough. The same problem as the paella at All Bar One, noticed previously. BH quite happy with her fish and chips - and I thought the texture of her fish looked pretty good. And for once in a while, taken with fizzy water, BH not being that keen on driving in the dark.

A fine moon, as seen from the top of the Swan Centre car park, swan for the hotel which used to be in the vicinity. Plus what looks like a Gatwick aeroplane below to the left and a planet above to the right.

PS 1: we came across one lady from Hassocks, near Brighton, so a good way from Leatherhead. And I thought I overhead a gentleman talking about driving down from Norwich for the day to see the show. If I had earwigged right, he must have been quite an enthusiast. Perhaps he spends most of his weekends driving across the country to one or other production from the canon.

PS 2: a few days previously, we had come across the Liqs Club in Ashtead. Whisky and liquor store out front, members club out back. Complete with a small selection of cigars and a place outside to smoke them. Being in the area, I had called on the off-chance that the liquor included Calvados, which it did not. But I could buy whisky ranging in price up to around £1,000 a bottle. And I could join the club. Not quite clear who would be using the bar in the evening, but I don't suppose I shall ever find out, it being rather a long way away for an evening beverage these days. And certainly no warm beer for those still into that sort of thing. I can't remember whether Bumbles is still there, but I think that Liqs have most of the ground floor of the building snapped from Street View above. See reference 4. Noticed here because it looked bright and busy as we passed it on our way home.

PS 3: the chief man of the Club had the same family name as the rather good carpet shop a few yards down the road. So I dare say he was a member of the same family.

PS 4: I was interested to find this morning that my Webster's dictionary, a three volume dictionary from 1971, first published in 1909, devotes three pages to the proper form of address to be used in polite correspondence with important people. People like counts, mayors (in various jurisdictions), maids of honour, presidents of theological seminaries, princes of the blood royal and queens.

References

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patience_(opera). The source of the opening snap.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/03/pirates-of-penzance.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/03/raom.html.

Reference 4: https://theliqsclub.com/.

Reference 5: https://godalmingoperatic.org/. Next stop 'The Yeomen of the Guard'. This one we have done before.