How long is iolanthe

Twenty-five years ago, the fairy Iolanthe married a mortal — a capital offence under fairy law. However, her sentence was commuted from death to lifetime banishment on condition that she leave her husband and never see him again … but not before she manages to have a son, Strephon, who is half mortal and half fairy.

Now grown up, Strephon is a shepherd and has fallen in love with Phyllis, a shepherdess. She remains ignorant of his origins. The fairies still miss Iolanthe and plead with their Queen to bring her back from exile. The Queen of the Fairies, unable to bear punishing her any longer, recalls Iolanthe and all rejoice at the reunion. Strephon announces his intention to marry Phyllis — though, as she is a Ward of Chancery and therefore under the protection of the Lord Chancellor, she will need his permission to do so.

Strephon has approached the Lord Chancellor: as he does not regard a mere shepherd as a suitable husband for Phyllis, he has withheld his consent. Before she departs, the Queen promises Strephon her assistance. Phyllis and Strephon are reunited; despite the obstacles they face, the lovers recognise they can delay no longer. The Lord Chancellor and members of the House of Lords enter in grand procession.

The peers are all smitten with Phyllis, and have appealed to the Lord Chancellor to decide which of them shall have her hand in marriage. The lords summon Phyllis and invite her to choose one their number; she, however, declines to marry any of them. It tells the story of Strephon, the son of a fairy, who is in love with Phyllis, a ward of court.

It is gloriously camp and sharply satirical. We are playing this part of the storyline without lechery. Old men can be foolishly romantic — our Lord Chancellor is no exception. In fact, all the men in the show are tenderhearted rather than carnal. It is the women who are libidinous. I have been asked many times whether, given our heightened political climate, I will update the libretto.

My answer is no. Iolanthe has no particular comment on where we are now, but perhaps it can remind us where we have come from. The highest ranking character in Iolanthe is not the Lord Chancellor but the Fairy Queen, a thinly disguised lampoon of Queen Victoria. Although he protests that Iolanthe is his mother, his claims are met with derision by Phyllis and the peers who are unaware of his parentage and even the intervention of the Queen of the Fairies cannot persuade them otherwise. Furious at their attitude, she declares that Strephon will enter Parliament and will work to overthrow all the privileges enjoyed by the nobility, a job at which Strephon is successful.

However, he finds it no substitute for Phyllis and, with no further reason to conceal it, he reveals his fairy origins to her. This explains Iolanthe's apparent youth and the couple become re-engaged. At Strephon's request, Iolanthe puts their case to the Lord Chancellor, but has to disguise herself before doing so as, unbeknown to him, he is her mortal husband and she is forbidden to enlighten him under pain of death.