2025: The Jury’s Out
This year, a world première!
The Jury’s Out was a different take on G&S created by our own Linda D Milne. Linda writes: “I got the idea for The Jury’s Out a few years ago. Gilbert and Sullivan’s short operetta Trial by Jury is about a court case, and I always wondered how did the plaintiff and the defendant get to court? The Jury’s Out tells the story using lyrics and music from several G&S operettas.” There’s more about her concept in our archive Next Show page, and in the programme, which you can download at this link.
Another way in which this production was different was that it featured a guest appearance by Frances McCafferty, our Honorary President, and we were privileged that she was able to join us on stage for the première run of The Jury’s Out.
Setting the scene
Not only would Act 1 tell the promised story of how the Plaintiff (Sally in our version) ended up in court, but there was a further back-story: as the overture was being played, the audience were able to watch Sally and Richard grow up, first as children and then as young adults who fall in love and are then separated by Richard’s call to go to sea.
During the overture, we see …
Grateful thanks to Bob Mitchell, Senior, who produced and edited the video from which all the still photographs of our production used in these sliders have been selected.
The production
Act 1 proper starts in the village where Sally is still living, several years after the overture. Her new business venture, the “Sally Lunn” catering truck, is opened by a local dignitary to general rejoicing, propelled by excerpts from The Sorcerer, while Sally wonders whatever happened to Richard in a duet from Ruddigore and Dr Daly dreams of former love (The Sorcerer).
Scene 2 takes us on board MV Pinafore, a cruise liner, filled with passengers and crew, with the inevitable accompaniment of pieces from HMS Pinafore. Captain Richard and First Officer Henry resolve (to music from Ruddigore) to return home to find and woo Sally.
Scene 3 takes our seafaring pair back to the village, where they are welcomed (Ruddigore), Sally and Richard declare their love (“Oh, here is love” from The Pirates of Penzance), and prepare for a wedding day (The Mikado). This final section is played in front of gauze, behind which the stage is being set for the wedding conducted in mime while the band plays pieces from The Gondoliers and Ruddigore.
In our finale, the happy couple celebrate their marriage (The Gondoliers), the party are entertained to a second madrigal (Ruddigore), and Richard and Sally are sent away on their honeymoon (The Gondoliers). At which point, Katisha enters – a lady from Richard’s travels, who believes he still loves her – and tries to brign an end to their revels. The Act 1 finale from The Mikado, slightly shortened, provides the background to Katisha threatening vengeance, and frustrated newly-wed Sally feeling betrayed and threatening to see Richard in court.
We're now some years later …
In Act 2 we are in the Court of the Exchequer with a fairly straightforward version of Trial by Jury, with some minor modifications. For example, an extended introduction allowed the scene to be set, with comic opportunities for Frances and Linda herself, making a cameo appearance. Later the bigamous proposition of the Defendant is expressed in “Here’s a how-de-do!” from The Mikado as well as in “A nice dilemma”. Finally, the passage in which the Defendant offers to make himself tipsy to prove that he’s a bad lot was excised. This was replaced by Richard threatening suicide (HMS Pinafore), Sally forgiving him (reprise of “Oh, here is love”), and Katisha’s poignant “The hour of gladness is dead and gone” (The Mikado). Until, as expected, the Judge loses patience with legal argument and declares “I’ll marry Katisha myself!”.
Willie Campbell has arranged some entreacte music for our transition to the courtroom
The comments
We had an enormous number of positive comments, and we’ve put below a selection of what was shared on social media:
“Brilliant show – loved it!” “Everyone looked like they were thoroughly enjoying themselves, which was passed onto the audience.” “Really clever and wonderful show and what amazing voices and a great sound from the chorus.” “Congratulations on a wonderful show. I thoroughly enjoyed it, so good to hear so many resounding Gilbert and Sullivan choruses sung so well. Your vision certainly came together so well, adding a great twist to Trial by Jury all gelling to make for brilliant, very clever show, a great evening’s entertainment.”
“Great show really enjoyed it, and you can tell that everyone on the stage works as a team.” Overheard … “I expected this to be dragged out and gimmicky, but it holds together quite well and is a lot of fun.” “Thoroughly enjoyed TJO – lovely voices well done all involved.” “What a great show. … Fabulous sound and all the acting by everyone was great. Loved all the different characters doing wee bits here and there! Well done!”
“Just a word of congratulation on last night’s show. The idea was brilliant, and the soloists and chorus were excellent. Nice to have a full-size band, too. It was a really good evening’s entertainment – well done to all of you!” “Was at the show on Thursday and really enjoyed it! It was a very clever concept well put together! Clearly a lot of very creative people involved! Even managed a topsy-turvy twist at the end!
“Well done! A seamless prequel with a dramatic end. Your principals had super voices that blended and projected above the chorus. I appreciated this especially as I have just been to the famous Mary Poppins, where I am sure they act to a prerecorded score. So amplified that it was depersonalised. I liked Willie’s scoring, in that it was light when it needed to be and never drowned the singers. The second act was fun full of ‘me too’ squirms with exotic costumes to underline these. Hilarious feather dance with token male too! A great evening – thank you.”
Mike Pendlowski, District Representative for District SC7 (Fife) and membership secretary for Scotland, attended our Thursday première and reported on behalf of NODA – his report is at this link.
The cast
You can access the list of principals at this link, which leads to the cast entries in our Meet the Stars section. There was also a “chorus of recognisable G&S characters from other shows”, as the programme put it, making up the chorus of villagers, MV Pinafore passengers and crew, members of the jury and fellow-citizens in the public gallery. This meant that every member of the on-stage team was able to chose their own favourite character, and interpret this both in terms of the detail of their performance, but also what they wore … and many of these characters were photographed by our never-flagging Val McManus.
Mrs Partlett (Mary Kidd)
The changes of scene also meant that many of the characters had to modify their outfits – sometimes just adding a hat, but in other cases quite extensively – between appearances on stage. Many of the team ended up changing in the scene dock, and there was a special “quick change helper” for the members of the public who doubled as bridesmaids in Act 2.
Kerry’s Ode
Another Society tradition is for Kerry Black, as usual our Mistress of the Wardrobe, to write an “Odious Ode” giving her view of the show, and recalling some of the things that happened during the week. You can read Kerry’s Ode to The Jury’s Out at this link.
Behind the scenes
The pictures below were taken by various members of the Company off set during Show Week. They appear in randomised order … hovering your mouse over the image area will pause the autoplay, or you can select a frame from the film-strip at the bottom. Feel free to suggest improvements to the captions or to send me additional pictures (martin@dgass.org.uk).
Lindsay bids farewell to Paul and Jack – there’s a set to change!
As always an archive page is a work in progress. If you have material to share or comments/corrections to make, please email your webmaster!