HIGH SCHOOL TO PRESENT “THE MIKADO”

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 26, 26 April 1950, Page 5

HIGH SCHOOL TO PRESENT “THE MIKADO”

There is something about the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas that wins all hearts. The wit and verve of Gilbert’s libretto, the complex absurdities of the plot, and the tuneful music of Sullivan combine to give a type of entertainment which never fails to fill th theatres wherever the severe copyright restrictions allow their presentation. Of the long list of brilliant successes “The Mikado” ranks almost everywhere as first' favourite. The presentation of “The Mikado” at Whakatane next month is the first public performance of the High School since it was raised to full post-primary status. Many of the cast of last year’s “Pirates of Penzance” will again appear. The plot of \“The Mikado” gives greater opportunity for comedy than that of “The Pirates of Penzance.” While the scene is laid in the mythical Japanese town of Titipu, the characters display under their Japanese veneer all the foibles of Englishmen at which Gilbert loved to poke good-natured fun. The Japanese emperor has made flirting a capital offence, a decree which is countered by the Titipu town authorities by raising Koho, a condemned prisoner, to the exalted rank of Lord High Executioner, on the grounds that, as he is next on the list to die, he “can’t cut off another’s head until he’s cut his own off” —with the ■ result that no heads are cut off in Titipu for a year.

Other characters cast in the typical Gilbert mould include the aristocratic Pooh-Bah, who owing to a political accident finds that he is not only Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition, but Lord High Everything Else. The hero of the story is Nanki Poo, son of the Emperor, who has disguised himself as a wandering minstrel in order to escape the attentions of Katisha, an elderly court lady with matrimonial intentions. He falls in love with Yum-Yum, Ko Ko’s pretty ward, who unfortunately is at the outset of the play engaged to her guardian. “The Mikado” contains some of the best-known of the Gilbert and Sullivan melodies, including “A Wandering Minstrel I”, “I’ve Got a Little List”, “The Flowers That Bloom in the Spring”, “Willow, Tit Willow”, “He’s Going to Marry Yum Yum’,, “Taken from a County Jail”, the beautiful madrigal “Brightly Dawns Our Wedding Day”, and the song in which the delightful old Mikado explains how he has always tried to “Make the punishment fit the crime.”