UMGASS is here to entertain you with environmental whimsy, political mockery, and looovvee with its show Iolanthe!
5 total shows, running April 4-7, 2024. If you are unable to attend in person, you can get a ticket for all our Iolanthe livestreams, good throughout the run.
The fairy Iolanthe has been banished from fairyland because she married a mortal! Her son, Strephon, is a shepherd who wants to marry Phyllis, a Ward of Chancery. All the members of the House of Peers also want to marry Phyllis. When Phyllis sees Strephon hugging a young woman (not knowing that it is his mother – immortal fairies appear youthful), she assumes the worst and sets off a climactic confrontation between the peers and the fairies. The opera satirises many aspects of British government, law and society. The confrontation between the fairies and the peers is a version of one of Gilbert & Sullivan's favourite themes: a tranquil civilisation of women is disrupted by a male-dominated world through the discovery of mortal love.