The Pirates of Penzance, 2003
Creative Team
Director / Choreographer – Peter Kennedy
Musical director – Billy Cairns
Assistant director / choreography – Joanne Laverty
Cast
The Pirate King – Michael McAdoo
Major-General Stanley – Eugene O’Hagan
Frederic – John Hinchey
Mabel – Joyce Greenaway
Kate – Joanne Laverty
Ruth – Siobhán Mullin
Edith – Rosemary O’Connor
Isabel – Siobhan McQuaid
Sergeant of Police – Michael Blair
Samuel – Andrew Terrington
Onstage chorus
Victoria Barkley, Bill Blair, Jennifer Boyd, Seamus Boyle, Joanna Bradley, Sean Clarke, Chris Cotter, Ronan Corrigan, Hilary Cush, Victoria Davis, Pat Devine, Aoife Duffy, Aisling Fleming, Jenny Fleming, Natasha Forde, Nicholas Graham, Ricky Grehan, Margaret Hewitt, Sam Hunter, Brian Magill, Siobhán McQuaid, Tori Mercer, Veronica Monan, Veronica Mulholland, Emma Phoenix, Drew Reid, Andrew Terrington, Gary Todd, Trevor Wilson
Offstage chorus
Irene Cairns, Sheila Cooper, Anthea Courtney, Mary Crummey, Jean Cunning, William Curran, Desmond Doherty, Margaret Donnelly, Maria Ellis, Margaret Galloway, Jennifer Hall, Ethna Harding, Maureen Keohane, Hugh Magee, Ann McClean, Agnes McComb, Joe McDonald, Pauline McErlean, Charlie Melaugh, Joanne McNally, Ann Murphy, Bridie O’Reilly, May Rea, Therese Scallon, Joy Smyth, Therese Timoney, Marie White
The Major-General in a spot of bother
One thing’s certain about a Fortwilliam Musical Society show, there’s always a little squirt or two of humour inserted here and there, even if it’s not exactly according to the script.
Oodles of humour last night, and what a presentation of choral work and choreography. As always, Fortwilliam rightly sets itself among the best choral line-ups found anywhere in the amateur movement today.
As with any show, there has to be a main character, and what a choice the Society made in selecting Eugene O’Hagan as the Major General. He can, of course, sing magnificently, but there’s also a great acting ability present as well.
His exploitation of “Old Red Socks”, as some people have described a certain cleric, holds a humour all its own, but Eugene surely adds a lot to the part himself that no producer could possibly conceive on his own.
But the line-up for the show has lots of other major characters played by such notables as John Hinchey, Michael McAdoo, Andrew Terrington, a remarkably versatile Siobhan Mullin as Ruth and Michael Blair, whose men in blue would do a great disservice to any police force around today.
Youth is a very strong feature of the Society, and young actors include Rosemary O’Connor and Siobhan McQuaid, as well as a host of very talented youngsters.
Joyce Greenaway as Mabel showed the wide range of her voice, but maybe the one really sparkling feature of the whole musical production under William Cairns, Peter Kennedy and Joanne Laverty was the superb lighting, and a simple set that showed how a little can become a lot in expert hands.
It’s a show which gives that “go away happy” feeling, so don’t miss it during the rest of this week.
Louis O’Connell, Belfast Telegraph
