International G&S Festival 2019

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For the 26th International G&S Festival's UniFest competition, LOpSoc brought our summer production of a Double Feature: Trial By Jury and The Zoo on the 16th of August! After the success of our 80s adaptation of Patience that we presented the year before, we decided to present another (almost) modernised production.

The rowdy courtroom from Trial By Jury was reimagined as a 90s reality TV courtroom drama, The Judge Goode Show, filmed in front of a live studio audience. The Learned Judge became an acerbic reality TV star, and The Usher a highly strung executive producer just wanting to get a days filming done. The Jurors were selected out of the audience as the theme song plays.

The Zoo took place in the aftermath of the events of Trial. By shear coincidence, everyone on the TV set that fateful night decided to spend a relaxing afternoon at the zoo on the same day. The tranquillity doesn't last long, though. Carboy, a young pharmacist, was seen rushing onto the stage, overcome with grief. He feared for the life of his girlfriend Lætitia and intended to flee the nation in sorrow. Can the good will of the British public calm him down and will the arrival of Lætitia's ill-tempered father scupper their best made plans?

Trial By Jury was Gilbert and Sullivan's first show written in their fledgling partnership and is well loved the world over. The Zoo is a lesser known show with music by Sullivan and a libretto written by Bolton Rowe. The Zoo premièred just 10 weeks after Trial, which made our production a fascinating look into the early days of Sullivan's rise to light opera stardom!


Production Team

Director: Martha Fooks
Musical Directors: Billy Boulton and David Child
Producers: Joel Parkinson and Peter Alexander
Hair: Annabelle Sessions
Technical Team: Stage Technician's Society (StageSoc)

Principal Cast

Trial by Jury

The Learned Judge: Daniel Williams-Brown
The Plaintiff: Victoria Arnold
The Defendant: Pete Alexander
Counsel for the Plaintiff: Megan Warinton
The Usher: Joel Parkinson
Foreman of the Jury: David Child
First Bridesmaid: Annabelle Sessions

The Zoo

Æsculapius Carboy: Luke Comerford
Lætitia Grinder: Annabelle Sessions
Thomas Brown: Pete Alexander
Eliza Smith: Martha Fooks
Mr. Grinder: Joel Parkinson