You've never seen this ending to "The Yeomen of the Guard"
In the 2024 Buxton G&S Festival lineup, director Rachel Middle retells the Gilbert and Sullivan classic with humor, joy, and a heart-bending conclusion.
WARNING: SPOILERS for “The Yeomen of the Guard” by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan and for the 2024 Buxton production itself.
On Monday, July 29, 2024, the Grosvenor Light Opera Company’s Gilbert and Sullivan Annual Festival’s performance of The Yeomen of the Guard streamed on GSOpera.tv. Forbear! Theatre’s Rachel Middle directs the famous opera with a revolutionary and ground-breaking approach to the opera’s storyline, especially its Finale.
I’ve gathered my initial watch notes below and added some post-watch thoughts:
Alex Kirstukas as Jack Point. Nice to have an actor that I’ve probably seen before in GLOC or other companies, but don’t remember him specifically. So I’m not coming in with any preconceived ideas of how he has played other characters.
I’m so excited to see how Middle handles Jack Point’s collapse in this production.
I was really impressed with the Forbear! Theatre’s Yeomen which I took as the crowd misunderstanding what was happening and thinking Jack’s collapse was comedy.
That ending struck me as having a real Lon Chaney “He Who Gets Slapped” vibe which I admire because I wish I could learn how that alchemy of emotions works in narrative craft.
Oh, Punch and Judy show setup!
I can’t wait to see how that gets integrated into the action.
I’ve been reading Carolyn Williams’ Gilbert and Sullivan - Gender, Genre, Parody, and I really appreciate her commentary about the performing arts tradition as a way of understanding Jack Point’s character and presence in Yeomen, especially the Shakespearean Fool.
Extra points for including “When Jealous Torments Rack My Soul.”
I love this song and not just because it’s clever in both lyrics and music. I think Wilfred Shadbolt is a fantastic antagonist because he antagonists, (you know, ‘cause antagonists gotta antagonist), but in the course of him getting in everyone’s way, he can endear himself to the audience if he’s played (as all G&S should be) as if he truly believes he is good person who’s just doing the best he can.
Whenever I see a Yeomen where this cut song is replaced, my hopes go up that this is a director who sees Wilfred’s potential and intends to punch it up.
I like this Dame Carruthers. Her attachment to the history and culture of the Tower feels genuine and heartfelt.
It’s less about the “bloodthirstiness” of a Katisha replay and more about the appreciation of the role of this history in England’s identity.
This actress really captures that strange emotion I feel when I am studying history, especially the darker parts: It happened. It was wrong, but it happened. And it demands that we stare it in the face and admit it happened.
Sgt. Meryll, Phoebe, and Leonard hatch their plot to right a wrong.
I’m a little confused as to why some supernumerary townspeople are left to witness Leonard’s entry. Wouldn’t they recognize that “Leonard” later isn’t the same man they saw arrive?
OKAY, HERE WE GO: “Enter two strolling players: Jack Point and Elsie Maynard.”
Okay, a confident Jack … who is actually funny! Cue Micheal Scott “THANK YOU!” meme.
I really get frustrated when Jack is portrayed as completely incompetent. I’ve never seen it pay off in any way.
I never understand if this is supposed to make me disgusted with him or feel more sorry for him.
And the fact that Jack has a history of making jesting pay makes no sense if he is completely incapable of handling hecklers and roughs. That’s show business, people.
I also really like Jack and Else’s costumes. It establishes their role in this story and does nothing else.
When I see a Jack Point show up in full pantomime makeup and silk stockings, I roll my eyes and prepare for the rest of the performance to be way too on the nose.
And Jack and Elsie bring the energy and Theme Stated. Again, beautiful. Now, everything seems lighter and more joyful.
Nothing endears characters to an audience like competence.
I have seen so many performances where “I Have a Song To Sing, O!” is treated like a duty that must be suffered through.
This version almost feels like I’ve never heard it before! Not an easy feat for a song in which a version plays in my playlist rotation at least once every day or two.
Okay, relationship between Jack and Elsie is established as comradeship. Good, good.
Woo. Okay, okay. Setting up Act II Finale? Watching Jack and Elsie’s movements closely to see if we have any foreshadowing or irony being set up.
I’m capturing lots of screenshots when I see something I suspect might be build-up to ensure a cringe-less ending.
“Were I Thy Bride” is absolutely spot-on! Love the humor, physical comedy. And brilliant use of the Punch and Judy set to make Wilfred’s monologue even funnier.
Ooo. Nice Act I Finale with lots of “falling” to the ground. Wow, yeah, Middle has to be planning to destroy us with all these foreshadowing moments.
What??? No breakdown in Elsie and Jack’s relationship at Midpoint?
Wow, I can’t think of a performance I’ve seen where this moment isn’t where the director establishes that Jack and Elsie’s relationship is breaking down in some way.
I’ve only ever seen this as where Jack starts becoming the bad guy. His “Woe is you? Woe is me, I rather think!” is played up as selfishness, and he’s making the fatal mistake that will cost him everything by making the tragedy all about his own feelings.
Oh, right, right! Of course. He remembers the ring. Elsie is a married woman still. And if he holds her, hugs her as he has in the past, now there will be consequences!
Oh my gosh. Yes. This is brilliant. I can’t believe I never thought of this before! Jack is doing the right thing by leaving Elsie and not sticking by her at this moment.
This is literally the OPPOSITE of how I’ve always seen this painful moment played.
My brain is melting. I can’t believe I didn’t see it this way before.
I’m starting to cry because this is exactly how I am writing my “Jack Point,” as a misunderstood man who is making completely unselfish choices behind the scenes. It’s what I’ve never seen in any Yeomen performance … before.
Intermission thoughts: I love how Middle smoothly transitions between seriousness and humor. Every scene can go either way and back again in a natural human way.
I’ve never felt free to just laugh at any scene in a Yeomen I’ve seen before because I’ve always felt there was an intentional pall weighing the story down to keep it from having too much joy for the sake of the ending.
But this Yeomen feels like it belongs to the Gilbert and Sullivan universe because there is a whiff of the topsy-turvy in the air, but absolutely no satire.
I’m so smitten with this performance. It hits me that it is doing what I’m trying to do in my story: Gilbert’s words and Sullivan’s music are the backdrops for my characters, but they have their own actual lives that aren’t governed by a script.
So, which streaming service is going to pick up the Point & Shadbolt Show?
I adore this chemistry between this “Grossmith” and “Barrington” comedy duo. It’s so, so, so good because it’s subtle.
And Jack is just being human. Just be a human with a reasonable want and a ridiculous but understandable way to get it. I love it.
This is a fantastic “Hereupon We’re Both Agreed” not just because of the comedy duo business, but I am completely in love with the approach to the escalating encores! Adding chorus members to “join in the fun” is such a satisfying and believable way to punch up the energy! And again, reminding the audience that Jack Point isn’t a loser.
Ugh. I’m getting more and more nervous now because I am absolutely gobsmacked with this Jack Point. I’m so scared because I do not want him to die.
Oh, that’s cute. Fairfax perusing Jack’s book. Of course, the tenor doesn’t get the joke at first. (I love a good “tenor” joke as a substitute for a “blonde” joke.)
Loops closing.
Okay, Jack’s done. Elsie’s gone.
No big show of his grief. Not that I expected a performance as good as this one to do anything else.
No good director would make Jack fall apart at this point and ruin the impact of the ending.
Okay, loops continue closing.
I really, really like the approach in Meryll and Carruthers’s song that mirrors how “There is Beauty in the Bellow of the Blast” from The Mikado is often played.
I always like versions of The Mikado where Ko-Ko comes around at this point. The approaches of “oh, well, just make the best of it” or “you know, this girl ain’t so bad” are both acceptable to me.
I really have enjoyed this Dame Carruthers, and it feels really good to see a reciprocation of her attachment to Meryll instead of a whipped response. Again, I like seeing that in The Mikado, and I think it’s a shame that I’ve rarely seen it done in Yeomen.
Whew. Okay, deep breath. Here we go: Assembling for the Act II Finale.
That old lady has to be Middle. If she does a reveal, they’ll hear my applause from all the way over here in the middle of America.
I really like that everyone knows but Elsie.
It’s like those viral videos where the loved one is sneaking in to surprise the mom or wife, and everyone is dying with giggles behind her back.
My heart is racing. Here comes Jack.
Wait. She’s not going to do the bit with him, is she?
And he’s going along with it? What is this?
NO. NO. He’s giving her up? What?
Oh, no. No, no. He can’t die if …
HE DIDN’T. He turns away from the audience. And the “mocking crowd” holds him up.
The curtain falls.
Jack Point didn’t die. He was reborn.
And I am inconsolable.
And this means that Jack can come out and take his bow! And Middle chalks up another revolutionary change to how the curtain call often handles Jack Point’s demise. Jack can join the company to receive applause.
Which he does: And as the star.
I’m blown away.
I think what has moved me the most about this production as a writer who wants to understand twist endings is how Middle set us up.
As someone who knows the “drill” of how Jack is slowly destroyed, I’m primed to look for set-ups and visual references everywhere to get this director’s take on why Jack’s destruction is necessary.
Middle gives us all those fan-expectations right on time—and in many different new and clever ways—so we’re fooled into thinking we’re seeing a very well performed and interesting version, but still our expected Yeomen in the end.
Making the story work by defying the ending every G&S fan struggles to come to terms with is so deceptively simple, but in the wrong hands it would have felt like sacrilege.
Middle nails this by adding a warm beating heart throughout the entire piece that creates a Tower Green we believe in and slowly builds our desire to see it stay a happy place where a song and dance can break out at any moment.
And when it does, we are shocked and overjoyed.
Rachel Middle, thank you for this Yeomen. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.