Words by Isabelle Blakeney
At Theatre Royal Bath until Saturday 17 May
How do you translate a 19th-century comic opera for a 2025 audience? You dress it in Versace, of course.
Well, not actual Versace – but the Versace-inspired drapery that dominates the stage is undoubtedly the driving force behind Opera Della Luna’s reimagining of the Gilbert and Sullivan classic The Mikado.
Set in the fictional Japanese town of Titipu, the comic opera follows Nanki-Poo, a wandering minstrel (and, incidentally, the Mikado’s son in disguise), as he searches for his beloved Yum-Yum. Unfortunately for him, Yum-Yum is engaged to her boss, the tailor-turned-Lord High Executioner Ko-Ko. What unfolds is a farcical tale of love, looming executions, and increasingly absurd performances.
It’s impossible to overlook the production’s problematic origins. While defenders of Gilbert and Sullivan argue that the opera was always meant as a satire of Victorian England’s obsession with the “exotic East”, in the 140 years since the original production, the ‘Eastern fascination’ that is being satirised has lost some of its potency. Instead, the persisting gags feel outdated and the ‘Japanese’ names are an example of the longstanding degradation of Japanese names and pronunciations. While early productions leaned heavily on yellowface and exaggerated stereotypes, Opera Della Luna’s reimagining does seem eager to distance itself from that history. Here, lines like “‘It’s all in Japanese!’ ‘We are Japanese.’ ‘Oh yeah…’” acknowledges the self-satirising nature of the play, and “haute couture” costumes stand in for the more overtly caricatured kimonos.
Whether this subversion is successful depends largely on your perspective and your loyalty to Gilbert and Sullivan’s material. Do the Japanese stereotypes still jar, or do the aggressions in this version feel more casual and anachronistic than abjectly racist?
Despite its small cast, the production makes the most of a script and score originally written for a chorus. The un-mic’d vocals and small orchestra carried the music impressively, all the while staying true to the opera’s riotous nature. Kelli-Ann Masterson, who plays Yum-Yum, easily stood out vocally, and the entire cast embraced the production’s never-taking-itself-too-seriously energy.
With occasional lines re-written for a modern audience, like ‘I’ve Got a Little List’ which made cheeky reference to a ‘man with an electric car and a MAGA hat’ (performed by Matthew Scott Clark’s Ko-Ko), Opera Della Luna add their own updated satirical spin. The playful choreography, which even featured the occasional tap-dancing routine, served to keep the whole thing fun and playful.
For fans of Gilbert and Sullivan, this production offers all the absurdity, extravagant costumes, and satirical charm you’d expect, with just enough modern flair to keep things interesting. For others, it might leave you asking… can we really rewrite/re-right historical wrongs?
Picture copyright: Phil Tragen 2023