Musical theatre / “HMS Pinafore”, The Queanbeyan Players. At The Q, Queanbeyan, until October 23. Reviewed by GRAHAM McDONALD.

GILBERT and Sullivan productions are all about tradition. Even though these operettas are 140 years or so old, the humour and the interplay of human emotions still resonate with modern audiences without any major changes to the way the productions have been staged for more than a century.

For this production, the setting has been shifted back half a century or so to the Regency period, with the only obvious changes being the female characters wearing the high-waisted dresses familiar to those who watch film adaptions of Jane Austen novels and allowing Sir Joseph Porter to camp it up in satin breeches and a wig.

Director Jude Colquhoun has kept the production simple. The set is a minimalist suggestion of a sailing warship’s deck and choreographer Belinda Hassall has created enough colour and movement to enliven the ensemble scenes without overly complicating things for an amateur cast. The orchestra uses Sullivan’s original scoring and played with confidence throughout.

It is a most impressive cast. The principal characters are all confidant and skilled performers with Katrina Wiseman as Josephine and Veronica Thwaites Brown as Buttercup being standouts. David Cannell’s Sir Joseph and Paul Sweeney’s Dick Deadeye engagingly overacted with Cannell’s party piece, “I am the Monarch of the Seas” cleverly reworked (as is a tradition in such productions) to reflect recent political activity.

The 30-plus chorus applied themselves enthusiastically throughout, with the finale to Act 1 being particularly well done. This a complex technical production, with most, if not all, of the cast fitted with unobtrusive headset microphones, as well as the orchestra. The result is a well balanced sound, but it was just a little bit too loud and the overall level could be dialled back a notch or two.

Overall, this was two hours of enjoyable musical fun. The cast looked like they were enjoying themselves and the audience certainly was.