10 October, 2014

Dear Sir,

With a population similar to Marietta, Georgia, Framingham, Mass or Gravesend, England, it would not be surprising if a production by Bermuda’s Gilbert & Sullivan Society of The Pirates of Penzance was forgivably amateurish, on a par with the desultory summer stock productions that infest Massachusetts’ Cape Cod or Berkshires “community playhouses” with singing on par with the mosquitoes droning outside those tattered buildings and lighting schemes seemingly drawn from the lightning bugs in their parking lot fields.

Wednesday’s opening performance was anything but and showed a sophistication and verve that give this American citizen and guest resident an insight into why Bermuda is, in fact, a special place to live.

It is far-fetched, non-starter to even think that any of those cities mentioned above would have talent living there to achieve the set design and construction (Cleo Pettitt, Dikki Robb), lighting (Fiffi Thorsteinsson), or a producer or director (Deborah Smith-Joell, Andrew Lynford) or a musical director (Philip Shute), the band or the voices of the ensemble cast.

The salient point that came to me is that Bermuda IS special exactly in that it has retained citizens and attracted loyal guests who can achieve such a memorable performance of this sometimes overly- parodied play.

If you think that the voice of a Paige Hallett or Adrian Kawaley-Lathan or the sheer memorisation power and vocal excellence of an Alex Rosati would be located in a similar sized US city, you are mistaken my friend. I dare you to even say “Very Model of a Modern Major-General” 4 times. Now 4 times very fast.

Now in the “patter” song of Mr. Rosati’s Major General Stanley character in his 36 line opening song. Now realistically portray a bombast. Now in front of 300 people.

Now do your day job.

And if you want to know about Bermuda’s future, go and see the youth actors in the “Cross Bones” and “Skulls” troupes. Poise and confidence that made my evening. And this was opening night.

Yes there is the weather, the beaches, the boating and, for UK residents, some tax benefit. But it is the sheer collection of talent, my friends, wildly disproportionate to this mid-ocean speck, that is one of the main reasons we are all here in Bermuda and not Skokie, Illinois (no offence intended).

John Colin Jones