Is that when your spouse asks you, "So, can you really briefly explain to me what this thing is about," you really CAN do so. It's not like G&S do hugely complicated plots. . .
Wait until next semester. Yeomen Of The Guard, our spring show, has one of the most complicated sets of G&S plots. Basically, there are two separate sets of subterfuges, and only one character is aware of both of them (since they both relate to him). Otherwise, no one involved in either plot has any clue of the other plot. It's so cool.
But that doesn't really even capture what happens in the first act, let alone the second. In less than 100 words:
25 years ago, Iolanthe, a Fairy, married the man who is now Lord Chancellor, breaking Fairy law. He thinks that Iolanthe died childless. It is now the eve of their son Strephon's marriage to Phyllis, a shepherdess whom every man in the house of peers as well as the Lord Chancellor (her guardian) is in love with. Phyllis breaks her engagement with Strephon after seeing him and the youthful appearing Iolanthe, agreeing to marry the richest peer. In desperation, Strephon asks for aid from the Fairy Queen, who gets him into the house of peers. Hilarity ensues.
Ok, that's still the first act, but you don't want me to spoil it, do you?
Do you guys rehearse at MIT? I'm usually there on Wednesday nights, although this week I didn't try to look for you since I was a bit busy, y'know, getting dumped. And I suspect you had a birthday thing to go to afterward; the same one he had to rush off to afterward (and probably enjoyed thoroughly with no pangs of conscience, only to go home and sleep like a baby, but whatever). [</bitter>]
I so desperately wish you'd asked him if I was with. That would have been beautiful.
(Sorry, still in the pettiness stage. Not an amicable breakup.)
We never really got to the stage yet of taking each other to the events of people the other had never met. While I know of the birthday lady, and doubtless knew many of the guests, even had we not broken up I would not have presumed to go to a stranger's birthday uninvited. Nor would he have asked me to accompany him anyway.
I was really tempted to try to get a hold of you before the party so that you could sneer at him. But that would have been very childish, and I don't have your cell number anyway.
Well, look. It was a birthday. That meant that people sang "Happy Birthday." That meant that he sang, or tried to. That meant that you really don't have to worry about it -- if he attempts to sing, people sneer. It just works that way.
I so shouldn't be saying this. . . he's like the ONE person I snark about behind his back. I need to stop. He's not a bad person, really. But he's really easy to snark about.
To tell the truth, when I saw that he was there, I kept looking around to see if you were there, too.
For some reason, that really hurts this morning, even though it didn't last night. One of the things I enjoyed most was becoming seen in others' eyes as, well, a couple. That if one was around, the other probably wasn't far behind.
(You can probably tell I haven't been in a whole lot of relationships, let alone functional ones, if that's still a novelty.)
I had actually forgotten how horrid his singing was. It's come up before that he can't sing, but I think I was only there for it once. Unfortunately I'm still in the heartspace where things like that are endearing.
The fact of it being a birthday was why I didn't try to get a hold of you, cell phone or no. Someone else's birthday isn't the place to try to get people to be snide to one's ex.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-06 07:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-06 07:32 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-06 08:32 am (UTC)Every time I do a new G&S show, Rob asks "Okay, who's not what they seem? And who's the one everyone wants to marry?"
That sums up a large number of G&S plots right there.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-06 11:11 am (UTC)The half-fairy son of the Lord Chancelor and an exiled Fairy becomes a member of the house of peers after his fiancée sees him with his mother and suspects him of philandering. Hilarity ensues.
But that doesn't really even capture what happens in the first act, let alone the second. In less than 100 words:
25 years ago, Iolanthe, a Fairy, married the man who is now Lord Chancellor, breaking Fairy law. He thinks that Iolanthe died childless. It is now the eve of their son Strephon's marriage to Phyllis, a shepherdess whom every man in the house of peers as well as the Lord Chancellor (her guardian) is in love with. Phyllis breaks her engagement with Strephon after seeing him and the youthful appearing Iolanthe, agreeing to marry the richest peer. In desperation, Strephon asks for aid from the Fairy Queen, who gets him into the house of peers. Hilarity ensues.
Ok, that's still the first act, but you don't want me to spoil it, do you?
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-07 06:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-07 08:33 pm (UTC)Um, you weren't, as I suspect you figured out, but I didn't know WHY until I read your LJ when I got home. But I had been hoping to see you.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-07 09:14 pm (UTC)(Sorry, still in the pettiness stage. Not an amicable breakup.)
We never really got to the stage yet of taking each other to the events of people the other had never met. While I know of the birthday lady, and doubtless knew many of the guests, even had we not broken up I would not have presumed to go to a stranger's birthday uninvited. Nor would he have asked me to accompany him anyway.
I was really tempted to try to get a hold of you before the party so that you could sneer at him. But that would have been very childish, and I don't have your cell number anyway.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-07 10:32 pm (UTC)Well, look. It was a birthday. That meant that people sang "Happy Birthday." That meant that he sang, or tried to. That meant that you really don't have to worry about it -- if he attempts to sing, people sneer. It just works that way.
I so shouldn't be saying this. . . he's like the ONE person I snark about behind his back. I need to stop. He's not a bad person, really. But he's really easy to snark about.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 09:16 am (UTC)For some reason, that really hurts this morning, even though it didn't last night. One of the things I enjoyed most was becoming seen in others' eyes as, well, a couple. That if one was around, the other probably wasn't far behind.
(You can probably tell I haven't been in a whole lot of relationships, let alone functional ones, if that's still a novelty.)
I had actually forgotten how horrid his singing was. It's come up before that he can't sing, but I think I was only there for it once. Unfortunately I'm still in the heartspace where things like that are endearing.
The fact of it being a birthday was why I didn't try to get a hold of you, cell phone or no. Someone else's birthday isn't the place to try to get people to be snide to one's ex.