Sunday 27 November 2005

From bias free of every kind

Went to see Rock Trial last night. It's a rewrite of Gilbert & Sullivan's Trial by Jury with (can you guess?) rock music. Same words & harmonies, but in a very different style. Probably the most enjoyable thing I've seen on stage. The whole thing was helped by a pretty amazing audience: it was in a small theatre in the RNCM, so most people at the Saturday night show were ex (or present) MUGSS people. Before the show even started, there was a mexican wave, and chants of "Rock Trial!, *clap, clap, clap*, Rock Trial!, *clap, clap, clap*, etc...". Much of this was led by Al, the director, who was sat just behind Emma & meself.
Another reason for going was that Pete was playing guitar. It sold out fairly quickly; we only got tickets for that night because Alison kept a couple aside for us. Thanks Alison!
I liked the G&S version anyway (I was in it last year before doing La Cage!), but this was really well done. The leads were all very good and while the clever lyrical humour was intact, a lot of updated gags had gone in on top of those. As well as the leads, there was a huge chorus consisting of nerds, hippies, old people, groupies (of Edwin, the defendant), punks & such.

Brilliant night out.