GIVEN that Rodgers and Hammerstein’s hit songs from The King and I are so well known, it came as a considerable surprise to me to realise on seeing the Company of Friends’ production at Chequer Mead this week that I had never actually seen the show performed in its entirety before.
So it was a particular pleasure to be introduced to more than extracts by this simply lovely show.
The story is based on the real life experiences of widowed Victorian schoolmistress Anna Leonowens who became governess to the children of King Mongfkut of Siam in the eighteen sixties.
Keen to modernise his realm, the King employs ‘Mrs Anna’ to teach English to his many children and his many wives in an enchanting tale which sees both a clash of cultures and a meeting – if not always of minds – then at least of hearts.
Juliet McKinnell-Merrett played a delightfully feisty Anna, who stood upon her dignity as a woman, but could not quite deny the promptings of her heart.
She exploited Anna’s softer side in a tender rendition of Hello Young Lovers, and her outraged independence in Shall I Tell You What I Think of You? was as funny as it was delightful.
Ian Foster did not make the ultimate sacrifice popularised by Yul Brynner in his filmed role as King, choosing instead to sport a pony tale as he bestrode the stage of his little kingdom, his behaviour veering between all-powerful monarch and boyish bewilderment at the incomprehensible vagaries of womankind.
There is much endearing humour in the King which Ian brought out, but he was particularly effective during the darkest scene of the plot in which his escaped concubine Tuptim is captured and returned to court by his secret police.
Lynne Fallowell played Lady Thiang with a warm soprano voice which absolutely captured the kind-hearted queen. As first wife she was used to sharing her man, but in her loving tribute Something Wonderful Lynne brought out the generosity of her self-effacing character who knew that Anna could both challenge and support her husband in ways she could not.
But for all the wonderful costumes there is a dark undertone to the plot of The King and I in the shape of enslaved Tuptim and her secret lover Lun Tha.
Played by Emily McKinnell and Ben Cassan their doomed love affair was heartbreakingly expressed in their two lovely duets We Kiss in a Shadow, and I Have Dreamed, and ultimately even Anna cannot save them from their fate.
It was good to see Phil World, more usually the baddie in Chequer Mead’s pantos each year, playing it straight as the Karalhome, and his panto sidekick John Barnett, as Captain Orton.
A special word of appreciation is due to the performers who captured the exotic movements of Siamese dance so beautifully, especially in the magically effective ballet sequence retelling the story of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
But it was the royal nursery – first introduced in The March of the Siamese Royal Children – who personify the show’s warm heart, and in her role as the tiny Princess Ying Yaowalak, little Sophia Ally stole the show with a bravura display of self-confidence as she read her goodbye letter to Mrs Anna.
A lovely evening full of light, shade, pathos and some wonderfully catching songs which were being reprised sotto voce in the car park afterwards…
