Students perform a vivacious Ruddigore

Musical not noted for plot but energetic cast and orchestra

As a child, putting on a play in the backyard for the adults is part of what makes growing up so wonderful. The enthusiasm is what makes it fun. It's the whole "hey guys, let's put on a show!" mentality.

One of the pleasures of going to high school and college theater is the fact that the performers still have this energy. School affords a setting where the emphasis is on having fun and learning, not on turning a profit.

A nice example of performers having fun is in the Oberlin Gilbert and Sullivan Players' current production of Ruddigore. For the most part, the cast of 20 embodies the enthusiasm and verve that these backyard productions had so much of. Going up in Wilder Main, with less than a shoestring budget, one can't help but smile at the vivacity with which the actors, orchestra and crew attack the show.

W.S Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan were the Rodgers and Hammerstein of Victorian England. Together they created silly comic operas that parodied English social mores of the time. They were incredibly popular in the 1800s and still attract a large following.

The Gilbert and Sullivan plot lines remain essentially constant: boy meets girl, girl meets boy. They instantly fall in love, but some disastrous plight of misfortune makes their marriage impossible. A twist of fate occurs, the two can marry, they live happily ever after. Everyone sings.

Ruddigore is no different. Set in a haunted mansion, the story involves the requisite mistaken identity, chaste female beauty, and outlandish twits characteristic of a G&S show.

Though the cast didn't make the convoluted story any clearer, one doesn't go to a Gilbert and Sullivan performance for plot. At its core the show is a musical, the singing being most important. These singers certainly gave it their all. The female chorus was amusing; they blushed and sighed in a rightfully girlish manner. Of particular note was sophomore Tiffany Tucker with a beautiful voice and humorous deadpan faces.

Also successful was senior Renato Estacio in the role of the conniving Baron. Estacio did Ruddigore's Snidely Whiplash character justice. Sophomore Claire Thompson, playing the part of the chaste maiden of etiquette, Rose Maybud, was Girl Scout sweet and conveyed a nicely blissful naïveté. Baritone junior Seth Powers, the mansion's ghost, emanated a self-assured (if not morbid) cool, and he was complimented nicely by sword-wielding granny first-year Barbara Truett. The orchestra of seventeen was a huge asset.

The production was by no means polished, but this Ruddigore certainly gave the audience a good time. Isn't that what Gilbert and Sullivan is all about?

Ruddigore will be performed in Wilder Main, Friday and Saturday at 7:30. Tickets are $3.

The mansion in Wilder Main: Theater transforms everyday spaces into different places and eras. This weekend's production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore haunts the Student Union(photo by Beth O'Brien)