MY abiding memory of a Gilbert and Sullivan production is watching a long-ago performance in a school gymnasium where an enthusiastic director had gone overboard on visual creativity, writes Rosemary Lomax.

The play must have been the Pirates Of Penzance, as the place was crawling with manic matelots.

One scene required four of them to dance and sing a bit then climb the gymnasium ropes commandeered for the performance and hide out of sight on the curtained ceiling while another scene went on below.

All went well until a sailor lost his grip and swooped down on his rope to the makeshift stage where a soprano was in full throat, belting out an aria. The sailor swung to and fro like a pendulum until he came to rest, destroying the scene, the singer's confidence and the composure of the audience.

Things went from bad to worse when a man with knobbly knees came on in tights and the audience cracked up, laughing uproariously as the poor man tried to say his lines.

Since then I have always associated G and S with farce and unintentional humour. No more, however, after the pleasure of seeing the Abbots Langley Gilbert and Sullivan Society's masterly performance of The Gondoliers at the Palace Theatre, Watford.

From the moment the gorgeously attired chorus came on stage to open the proceedings, to the predictable happy ending, you just knew you were in superb musical hands and there were no disappointments.

The Gondoliers is a happy-ever-after tale of love, intrigue, royal betrothals and mistaken identity.

A royal prince, married in infancy to Casilda, the beautiful daughter of the Duke of Plaza Toro, a Grandee of Spain, was placed as a baby with a respectable gondolier to avoid trouble at court.

Inevitable identity problems ensue, as two gondolier brothers come to believe one of them is king and therefore married to Casilda. A complication is both brothers have just married their charming brides, Gianetta and Tessa, while Casilda is passionately in love with Luiz, a member of her father's entourage.

They are forced to rule jointly without their new wives until the mess is sorted out and and all ends well.

The cast is excellent, with fine singing and dancing and some outstanding performances.

Julie Nicholson and Emma Southorn shine as Gianetta and Tessa, while Nicholas Maude and Robert Milner provide the perfect foils as gondolier husbands Guiseppe and Marco.

Colin Self huffs and puffs convincingly as the Duke of Plaza-Toro while Fred Bagley struts authoritatively as the Grand Inquisitor. Brenda Southorn is excellent as Duchess to Colin Self's Duke and The Watford Observer's own Stuart Collier, otherwise known as the singing sub, deserves special mention as Luiz, a role in which he sings superbly and to which he adds a few humorous touches.

Musical director Peter Jones does an exceptional job, as does the orchestra which manages never to drown the unmiked singers. This production is a splendid example of how very good a good amateur dramatic society can be.

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