Robin Twyford directed the ever-popular
Iolanthe, a tale of fantasy, fun and love as the House of Peers clashes with the Fairy Kingdom. The show was staged at Forum 28 and theatre critic Helen Wall was there on opening night and wrote The Mail’s review. She said that Barrow Savoyards had created just the right world of magic mixed with the absurd. The curtains opened on a scene from a Victorian child’s pop-up book, a rural idyll peopled by the most cheeky, mischievous, feisty fairies imaginable. They were led by Sheila Thorne, as a splendid Queen of the Fairies, singing her first major Gilbert and Sullivan role and making the most of the comic opportunities in the part, while Helen Troughton as Iolanthe sang beautifully and lent just the right amount of pathos to the story.