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Two feuding families set up a battle of the sexes

Photo credit: Beyond the Stage Photography
Princess Ida stars Jana Kucera (Princess Ida), Michael Moren (King Gama) and Josh Wilburn (King Hildebrand).

Girl power and romantic shenanigans take the stage with this year’s Summer Savoyards production of Princess Ida. First debuting at the Savoy Theatre in 1884, the Gilbert and Sullivan play satirizes several topics considered taboo during the Victorian Era. These included women’s education, feminism and Darwinian evolution.

It’s a unique play for Gilbert and Sullivan due to it being taken from a narrative poem originally written by Alfred Lord Tennyson. “The characters are similar, the situation is kind of similar, but it's a very different treatment,” said director Mark Roth. “Gilbert and Sullivan, I think, attempted to make it more relevant to their time and what they wanted to say using that.”

This play also borrows a writing style more associated with the works of Shakespeare than Gilbert and Sullivan: It’s written in iambic pentameter. “What they were really trying to accomplish, other than give it a little grander scale, is give it a little more gravitas,” said Roth.

While Princess Ida is, on its surface, the tale of a character trying to break free of what was predetermined for her life, it’s also the story about family relationships. “There are these single parents all over the place, and we don't get a sense that the relationship between parents and children is very good,” said Roth. It’s through the lens of arranged marriages that much of the conflicts arise.

The Summer Savoyards will be performing Princess Ida from July 19th through July 21st at the Anderson Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of Binghamton University.

Watch the full interview with Bill Snyder below.