Can you take the Japan out of the Mikado? Director Sasha Regan certainly believes so as this production of the Gilbert and Sullivan classic is given her customary all-male treatment. Of all the G&S canon, the Mikado’s setting in the town of Titipu provides a 2023 production with a real dilemma – how far down the orientalism route can one go? Gilbert’s view of far-off Japan was filled with Victorian wonder at this unfamiliar culture wowing the British public of the 1880s. It was a Savoy Theatre world of white-masked samurai, flapping fans, cruel punishments and comic foreigners. So, to set the opera in the topsy-turvy world of faux Japanoise is a step too far for many young theatre makers of today. Regan’s solution is to take Japan completely out of this ‘Japanese’ story. Does she succeed?

We are in a very English boys’ camp site of the 1950s. Think shorts and sleeveless jumpers. The setting is a dreamy woodland clearing where sits a single ridge tent. It is night and the lads put on a clandestine show about a town called Titipu (perhaps somewhere in Hertfordshire), a wandering minstrel and an executioner, Mr Cocoa. All of Gilbert’s storyline is there except for Japan. Even the characters’ names are anglicised: Yum-Yum becomes Miss Plumb, Nanki Pooh - Bertie Hugh and Pooh Bah morphs into Albert Barr. Any Japanese references in lyrics or dialogue are duly expunged.

All this works surprisingly well and after an initial shock, it all sorts of makes sense as long as you fully activate your willing suspension of disbelief. What follows is a kind of G&S meets ‘Carry on Camping’ with lots of ribald fun, choreographic antics – Regan isn’t happy to let singers just stand there and sing; they have to be kept busy playing cricket, pumping up a bicycle or pretending to be a horse and carriage.

Though this show isn’t for purists, there is a huge amount to enjoy. The songs are treated with great respect and though falsetto can never replace true soprano, the quality of the vocals was high. There were also some surprisingly touching moments such as Sam Kipling who was exceedingly good as Miss Plumb in her aria ‘The sun whose rays’. Sullivan’s gorgeous melody was delivered with hesitant passion suggesting something deeper below the outward narcissism of the lyrics (comparing herself to the sun and moon). The opening of Act Two in which the chorus of ‘ladies’ prepare the bride to be was done with great humour involving shaved legs and waxing moustaches. Declan Egan was in fine voice as the Mikado’s errant son and David McKechnie’s executioner was commanding though more tragic than comic. His ‘Little List’ song completely re-written cleverly avoided political victims of today and instead targeted universal pariahs such as those who ate garlic and didn’t brush their teeth.

There were some weaknesses in this production. Aidan Nightingale’s voice and manner was too lightweight to carry the hugely pompous Lord High Everything and Lewis Kennedy’s silly overwrought Geordie emperor entirely misfired. That said this was a show to enjoy. It had fun and gaiety in bounds. It was a bold take on the trad story, a successful ‘romp com’.

Hats off then to Regan for going for laughs but respecting the score. You can take Japan out of The Mikado but you can’t, and she didn’t, take the enormous fun out this timeless show. Go see it, it turns a dull July into the sunniest of summers.

PHOTOS: Mark Senior

Cambridge Arts Theatre, 6 St Edward’s Passage, Cambridge, CB2 3PJ

Dates: Monday 24 – Saturday 29 July 2023

Box Office: 01223 503333 / www.cambridgeartstheatre.com