stage left: Patience; Or, Bunthorne’s Bride
The McGill Savoy Society
February 4, 2026
TEXT CONTENT FROM GRAPHIC ABOVE
Title of production: Patience; Or, Bunthorne’s Bride
Run dates: February 13 - 21
Performance venue: Moyse Hall Theatre, 853 Sherbrooke St W, Montreal, Quebec H3A 0G4
Answers provided by: Michael Quinsey (Stage Director), Ana Neocleous (Music Director), Nathan Jablonski, Secretary
Give us an elevator pitch of your show.
Since time immemorial, men have always tried, book of poetry in hand, to make themselves seem more attractive (and rather unsuccessfully). In Patience, however, they're somehow (partially) successful. Since Reginald Bunthorne's poetical nature has won the affection of twenty artistic women (formerly) engaged to local military men, it has not however won over the affection of Patience, the local milkmaid who cares not for love or poetry (as she should). That is until her childhood love, Archibald Grosvenor, coincidentally a poet and also the hottest man alive, comes to town, completely disrupting the bizarre local ecosystem in this maddeningly hilarious satire of 19th century poetry, fad chasing, and performative artistry.
- Nathan Jablonski (Secretary)
What is your favourite part of this production?
Favourite moment in the play itself, I would say Lady Jane’s recit and song in the second act. Lady Jane is one of the maidens vying for the affections of the poet Bunthorne. Being much older than the other maidens, she is played off as comic relief, the butt of cruel jokes, as an aging woman acting in a sort of shameful or embarrassing way. Her solo, the first of the second act, is a startlingly sober moment; Jane, alone on stage, sings a heart-rending lament, decrying the way that the world has begun to treat her poorly as she ages. In this song Sullivan’s setting offers us a fleeting glimpse into the rich interiority of this character, arguably the only moment of true sincerity and self-awareness in what is otherwise a biting satirical play about fleeting passions and the fickleness of identity. Lady Jane’s melancholic moment in the spotlight illustrates the impossible double-bind women face in society as they age: the first verse ends “Little will be left of me in the coming by-and-bye,” while the second, “There will be too much of me in the coming by-and-bye.”
- Ana Neocleous (Music Director)
Do you have any other pieces or artists that have inspired you or have left inspiration on this production?
Honestly? An odd combination of The Music Man, Oscar Wilde, and William Shatner. It’s the story of a charlatan artist charming a village with his fake talent but despite all the attention he gets, his heart is set on a skeptical milkmaid not taken in by his act. It’s an ensemble cast where every incidental character has their own personality and motivations, even if they don’t have lines or emotional arias. It’s a very colourful world of artists, bumbling dragoons, and singing milkmaids.
- Michael Quinsey (Stage Director)
In a sentence, tell us about the vision or the message for this production.
It’s an escapist fantasy poking fun at fad-chasing artists who take themselves too seriously, showcasing the freedom of ignoring social pressures and embracing the everyday.
- Michael Quinsey (Stage Director)
How does this production align with your company’s mission or artistic vision?
As a production company based at a university, our mandate is as much educational as it is artistic. Part of the appeal of working with a student cast is giving young artists an opportunity to experiment, learn, and grow in what may be their first stage experience. As directors we bring our own years of experience to each rehearsal, and pass down that knowledge in a practical hands-on setting where the cast themselves are encouraged to take risks and explore.
- Michael Quinsey (Stage Director)
The show not only provides a great opportunity to cultivate a skillset as actors and singers, but also allows us to “show them the ropes.” Through our productions these young artists have an opportunity to become familiar with the ins and outs of what goes into making a show happen.
- Ana Neocleous (Music Director)
How does this show fit into the broader season or future plans for your company?
The Savoy Society has been “on the road” for the past couple of years as Moyse Hall, our traditional venue on McGill campus, has been closed for renovations. This year we are absolutely thrilled to be returning to Moyse for the first time since that hiatus. The past few years moving from venue to venue has presented logistical difficulties and taken up a lot of our focus, providing additional barriers to each year’s show. As we return to Moyse, we’re excited to re-build a relationship with a space that we can call home, and hopefully use this as a starting point to grow Savoy’s reach and significance in McGill’s campus life and Montreal’s theatre scene to the heights it once reached. I’ve been told we even once had an office space… how cool would it be to bring that back! I’ve already ordered the name plate for my desk!
- Ana Neocleous (Music Director)
BONUS QUESTION: If your show had to take place in an entirely different setting (e.g., outer space, underwater), how would it change? Would it change?
The McGill Savoy Society has a fairly unique artistic mandate: to perform the same limited set of operettas over and over again forever, which we have been doing successfully for 62 years and counting. This mandate of repetition provides us an opportunity to play around with the settings of our productions, to create interest not only through what’s written on the page, but how we choose to realise it on stage. For example, the last time we performed Patience was 1987 where we recast the soldiers and poets in Victorian England as Engineering and Arts faculty students at McGill University. Drawing on the play itself, the history of Gilbert & Sullivan performances, and the history of our own organisation, if we had total license to change the setting we would pay homage to that artistic tradition by finding a way to set the show in our own contemporary Montreal: perhaps a Plateau poet and a Griffintown software engineer vying for the affections of a hip young barista?
- Michael Quinsey (Stage Director)
Patience; Or, Bunthorne’s Bride
By The McGill Savoy Society
Running February 3-21, 2026
At Moyse Hall, McGill University