Edinburgh Fringe preview: Gilbert & Sullivan’s Improbable New Musical … & Helen

Sue Ellerby, Coily Dart director tells us about the process of bringing their audio musical about Helen Carte to the stage.

Where: theSpace Triplex

When: 12-17 Aug

Ticket link: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/gilbert-and-sullivan-s-improbable-new-musical-and-helen

What are you looking forward to the most at Fringe?

I can’t wait to see some of the performances I’ve already booked, though this year a lot of my excitement is focussed on our new Coily Dart show, “Gilbert and Sullivan’s Improbable New Musical: … and Helen”.

This is the third new show we have brought to the Fringe and the most exciting part for me is the moment when the house lights dim at the start of the very first performance. It’s a feeling like no other – a mixture of excitement that an audience is going to see the work for the first time, a sense of pride in the cast, whose dedication has achieved this, plus the hope that all will go smoothly. Overall, I think it’s the feel of that special moment that I am most looking forward to.

This show had a previous life as a digital production during lockdown – which I enjoyed! What’s changed to develop it for live performance?

I’m so glad that you enjoyed the audio-version of the show and thank you for the helpful review! The show was initially intended to be performed as a staged production at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2021. Lockdown disrupted our rehearsal plans and so we created the show entirely remotely as an audio-version which we performed (pre-recorded) at the Brighton Fringe To make the audio- version work we needed to add extra dialogue in places, for example to indicate changes of scenes, or where visual cues would suggest parallel action in two “rooms”.

At last year’s Fringe we worked out the logistics and venue for this year and we can’t wait to perform it live. It’s been great fun to create the stage version, which was how it was originally intended – visually fast paced, with our usual rapid scene changes and “typical” G&S style dances. The vocals for this show are beautiful and I’m sure that hearing these lovely Sullivan harmonies live, rather than pre-recorded, will add another dimension to the show. It has been an amazing experience to bring the stage version to life, with props, lighting and movement as originally envisaged and we can’t wait to share this with audiences.

Coily Dart is obviously a play on D’Oyly Carte, the opera company that staged the works of Gilbert & Sullivan. How did you start out?

We started out with our first show in 2017 – “Gilbert and Sullivan’s Improbable New Musical: The Fringe Lozenge”, which we described as the show G&S would have written if the Fringe was around in their day. I’ve been a regular Fringe-goer for several years and am also very familiar with G&S operettas. I had the idea to bring the first show (a very rough draft at the time!), when caught up in the excitement and creativity of the festival in 2016. While at the Fringe I found and booked a venue for 2017 and then began casting on my return home. The experience was great fun and the show sold out, with wonderful audience feedback and reviews. The idea for another show developed and we returned to a larger venue in 2019 with “… Less Miserable” (telling the story of Les Mis purely with G&S songs, along with some Gilbertian plot twists and a happy ending!). Again, this sold out and we were overwhelmed to receive a nomination for “Best Musical Production at the Fringe”. Another idea followed and here we are, back again! The name came about as it seemed apt for the sort of shows we create – G&S with a twist!

Do you have a favourite G&S production – and why do think these operettas remain popular?

My favourite show is probably Yeomen of the Guard – I think the overture to that is particularly beautiful. It was my dad who introduced me to G&S and at his funeral his great-granddaughter sang “Is life a boon” from the show, and so that also holds a special place in my heart.

In terms of productions, I really enjoy seeing a G&S operetta performed with obvious enthusiasm and affection for the style. I particularly enjoy those produced by Sasha Regan’s all male company and am very much looking forward to seeing them perform again at Wilton’s Music Hall later this year.

It’s funny you should ask why G&S operettas remain popular, as the person responsible for their enduring success is the focus of our new show! Although I’ve been familiar with G&S for a long time, I had not until recently realised how instrumental Helen Carte was in ensuring the longevity of the operettas. Helen was university educated and multilingual (a rare combination for a woman in Victorian times!) and was said to be a shrewd businesswoman. It was her expertise that navigated copyright for the operettas, her vision that led to the concept of revival seasons, successfully demonstrating the operettas potential, and her management of the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company that led to its longevity.

Although many people still regularly perform and enjoy G&S, I have the impression that many local amateur groups are now finding it harder to attract audiences. My hope is that shows such as ours may help to introduce a wider audience to the music and genre.

What’s next for you?

The shows we create are new stories with original G&S songs. Our hope is that this type of production will stimulate further creativity and innovation in the G&S mould. We have found that the Fringe offers a great opportunity to find a receptive audience for our new work – one where we can reach a wide, international audience who may then want to perform the shows with their own groups. Further performance of the shows by others is something we actively want to encourage.

The scripts and scores for all our shows are published and available worldwide from Amazon. It has been encouraging to see that other G&S groups in the US and UK, when performing our shows, have sold out their venues.

A company in the US recently performed one of our shows at the Rochester Fringe Festival, New York. This experience then inspired them to create and perform their own new story using G&S songs. This is something we would love to see happen on a wider scale, helping to introduce broader audiences to an enjoyment of G&S.

We hope we will be able to continue creating and performing more new shows in the future, and that others will continue to be inspired to perform them.