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1951 - Iolanthe

Show Synopsis

"THE PEER AND THE PERI." Peri is a Persian word for fairy. There you have the gist of the play. Fairies as everybody is aware, are always meddling in our affairs, and here they make a terrible mess of the House of Peers. Their methods are unfair and dishonest; also they are strongly organised and obey their leaders implicitly.
Fairies enter led by Leila, Celia and Fleta. They discuss the banishment of lolanthe 25 years before because she married a mortal, an unpardonable crime usually punished by death. lolanthe did not die because the Queen commuted her sentence to penal servitude for life on condition that she left her husband and never communicated with him again. The unfortunate victim chose to work out her sentence at the bottom of a stream to be near her son Strephon, an Arcadian Shepherd. The fairies beg the Queen to forgive her. She does, and calls lolanthe, the call being echoed by the fairies. They welcome her to their hearts again and lolanthe receives her pardon with ecstacy. She explains why she went to live at the bottom of the stream and adds that her son Strephon is in love with Phyllis, a Ward in Chancery. Owing to his peculiar parentage Strephon is a Fairy down to the waist whilst his legs are mortal.
The Queen expresses a desire to see this phenomenon. Her wish is gratified for Strephon enters and tells his mother that he is to be married this verv day but bemoans the disadvantages under which he lives because of his being half fairy and half mortal. His upper half is Tory, but his legs are a pair of confounded Radicals. This in reply to the Queen's suggestion that he enter Parliament. The Queen solves the problem by saying he shall be returned as a Liberal-Conservative.
The Fairies bid him farewell and Phyllis enters. The two lovers talk of their coming union, but she wants to wait two years. Strephon forsees the possibility of her marrying the Lord Chancellor her Guardian, or another member of the House of Peers.
The Peers meet in the Glade and the Chancellor enumerates the difficulties he experiences in administering the affairs of the Wards in Chancery, there never being one for him. Succumbing to the charms of Phyllis and led by Lord Mountararat and Tolloller they beg her to marry one of them. Their hopes are dashed by her announcement that her heart is given to Strephon whom they treat with scorn. The Lord Chancellor points out to Strephon that he cannot marry a Ward in Chancery and the luckless lad bemoans his lot to lolanthe.
Phyllis and the Peers discover Strephon in conversation with his youthful mother and think that he is flirting. He cannot persuade the noble lords that lolanthe is indeed his mother and calls upon the Fairies, the Queen of whom impresses the peers with the fact that such is the case and furthermore that Strephon is going into Parliament. She decrees hideous vengeance on the noblemen who dare oppose his views and the Act ends with open warfare declared between Peers and Fairies.
Private Willis of the Grenadier Guards soliloquises on the comicalities of Nature's contrivances when the Fairies enter with Celia, Leila and Fleta boasting that Strephon's a Member of Parliament. The Peers take a poor view of this and Lord Mountarat is particularly bitter about the Bill to throw the Peerage open to Competitive Examination.
Phyllis, meantime, finds herself unable to choose between Lords Mountararat and Tolloller, while the Lord Chancellor is very miserable. He finds his own love for Phyllis unrequited and has declined, in his capacity of Lord Chancellor, to entertain the application he has made as Guardian of Phyllis to allow himself to marry her.
The coldness between Strephon and Phyllis is cleared up when she learns the reason for lolanthe's youthfulness and they persuade her to reveal herself to her husband, the Lord Chancellor, and place their unhappy lot before him. Matters are further complicated by the Lord Chancellor revealing his intention to marry Phyllis, whereupon lolanthe is obliged to tell him she is his wife. The Queen accuses lolanthe of again breaking her vows for which she must die. Leila points out that if that is the case so must they all. Celia tells the Queen that all the Fairies have become Peeresses.
The Lord Chancellor comes to the rescue by inserting the word "don't" in the Fairy Law so that it reads " Every Fairy must die who don't marry a mortal.'. To save her life the Queen invites Private Willis to become her spouse which he nobly consents to do. Phyllis has Strephon, the Peers become Peris and all ends happily.