The Sorcerer explores young love, the perils of meddling in others’ relationships (Emma Wodehouse take note) and the unpredictability of love potions applied indiscriminately (Oberon take note). As always, with Gilbert’s plots, there are plenty of problems across class boundaries, misunderstandings and unresolved dilemmas.
There are three leading couples:
Alexis and Aline are in love and about to be
betrothed. Like any young couple in love - or 'loved up' - they cannot understand why others are
not as happy as they are and wish that everyone else should fall in love to
achieve happiness.
Unknown to them, their respective parents - Lady
Sangazure and Sir Marmaduke Pointdextre - were once in love themselves but,
constrained by the rigid manners of their time, never married each other.
Meanwhile, the teenage Constance Partlet is in love
with the elderly confirmed bachelor Dr Daly, the village vicar, her social and
intellectual superior.
To these we can add Constance's mother, Mrs Partlet, an honest pew keeper in the local church and a Notary. Gilbert enjoys poking fun at lawyers but he was not alone: think Cosi fan Tutti, The Barber of Seville, Gianni Schichhi. In each case the lawyer is presented as a doddery idiot, usually in disguise.
Act 1 establishes the various characters. Constance
cannot express her love for Dr Daly, despite her mother’s attempts to smooth
the path. Like any parents, Sir Marmaduke and Lady Sangazure, deprecate the manners of the young
and remind each other of the formality of their courtship (the date of the piece suggests that they were courting just after the Jane Austen/Regency period). Alexis and Aline are
betrothed.
To achieve his
aim of making everyone fall in love, Alexis has recruited John Wellington
Wells, an eminent London Sorcerer, to provide a love philtre. At Alexis’
bidding and despite Aline’s doubts, Wells creates a love potion which is added
to the tea at the betrothal feast. (Gilbert has a dig at the temperance movement by only allowing tea at the betrothal feast).
Almost all fall
senseless to the floor.
Alexis is initially
delighted with the results and insists that he and Aline should drink the potion
to reinforce their bond. Aline is hurt by his lack of trust and initially refuses,
but then relents. Doubts begin to
emerge when he realizes that all the principals, and particularly his
adored Aline, are now in love with the 'wrong’ people. Even the Sorcerer has
become the object of a female’s attention.
Together, he
and the Sorcerer agree that the magic must be reversed. But how can this be
done?
Well, I wasn't going to give away the ending was I?
If you want it in a nutshell then:
Good intentions,
great commotions,
But best avoid
those magic potions.
