It’s all cucumber sandwiches, silly mid-wicket and googlies in Chris Monks’ new interpretation of Gilbert and Sullivan’s well-loved operetta. Where once the action took place in the strict society of Japan, it is now enacted under English cricket’s code of conduct. In Monks’ own words, “Like the Japanese tea ceremony, cricket is so esoteric, the uninitiated find it incomprehensible. Its hierarchy is inscrutable; its rituals require a lifetime of study to fathom.” Monk’s careful re-writing has seen the satire of the original production, which was aimed directly at English subjects, re-emerge.

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