The engaging Mr Polly: tenor Robin Bailey shines in the title role of Edward Longstaff’s new opera based on H.G. Wells at Tête à Tête

Edward Longstaff: The History of Mr. Polly: Part One – Robin Bailey – Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival at the Cockpit (Photo Claire Shovelton)

Edward Longstaff: The History of Mr. Polly: Part One; Robin Bailey, Laurie Slavin, Jack Holton, Maya Kumana, Elizabeth Lynch, Emily McCarthy, Sophia Jin, Hailey West, director: Stuart Barker, piano: John Longstaff; Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival at the Cockpit
Reviewed 9 September 2026

The first half of a work in progress, an ambitious opera based on H.G. Wells’s comic novel, benefits from Robin Bailey’s easy charm in the title role in a workshop performance that proved wonderfully engaging

H.G. Wells’s picaresque comic novel The History of Mr. Polly is not the most obvious subject for an opera. Wells tells the story with almost Dickensian relish, but the central character is a bumbling anti-hero and achieves his goal despite himself. He is lacking in self-confidence and education, his most distinctive characteristic is verbal, his invention of descriptive words. Wells’s book has been adapted as film and TV series multiple times, but this seems to be the first operatic adaptation. Though the musical Half a Sixpence was based on Wells’s 1905 book Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul.

As part of Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival at the Cockpit, composer Edward Longstaff presented The History of Mr. Polly: Part One with piano accompaniment by John Longstaff. There will be a Part Two, and the work will be orchestrated. At the Cockpit we saw a production directed by Stuart Barker with designes by Valassia Barbouti and Maria J Damia Patino. Robin Bailey played Mr Polly, with Laurie Slavin as Parsons, Jack Holton as Mr Johnson, Maya Kumana as Mrs Johnson, Elizabeth Lynch as Ma Larkins, Emily McCarthy as Annie, Sophia Jin as Miriam and Hailey West as Christabel.

Edward Longstaff studied at Royal Holloway and Goldsmiths. He spent 31 years teaching at the Purcell School and now writes full-time. The History of Mr. Polly is his second opera. His first opera, Iphigenia was written for young voices and premiered at the Purcell School.

Edward Longstaff: The History of Mr. Polly: Part One – Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival at the Cockpit (Photo Claire Shovelton)

The opera preserved the book’s structure, beginning in media res with Polly unhappy with his lot and planning to set fire to the shop and kill himself. Then things jumped back to the beginning, and Part One of the opera finished with the fire, only for Polly to turn into an accidental hero. Wells’s book has a lot of plot and despite Longstaff’s clever excisions and compressions (he wrote his own libretto), there was still a lot of plot and significant number of characters.

The focus was, inevitably on Robin Bailey in the title role, the piece relied quite heavily on Bailey’s appealing lyric tenor voice and personal charm even when Polly was being idiotic and prat-ish. The remaining seven cast members formed an ensemble which Longstaff used to act as narrator and move things along, though Longstaff also used them to tell us what would happen and point out Polly’s foibles.

Each singer had a solo role too, stepping out of the ensemble and putting on extra clothes to characterise their more neutral Edwardian-style clothes. Laurie Slavin made an energetic Parsons, a shop assistant whose efforts to liven up the shop window got him sacked, forming a salutary lesson to Polly. Jack Holton and Maya Kumana were Mr and Mrs Johnson, cousins of Polly’s who had their eye on the fact that Polly came into money when his father died. Both Holton and Kumana relished the contrast between their characters’ very proper demeanour and their subtly grasping natures. Elizabeth Lynch was Ma Larkins, with Emily McCarthy and Sophia Jin as her daughters. Cousins of Polly’s with whom he made acquaintance and more at the Johnson’s. The family became important to him because he needed to make little effort and the required none of him. Inevitably, before the end of Part One, Polly had falled into an almost accidental engagement with the daughter, Miriam (Sophia Jin).

Before then was an episode on his famous bicycle (which made a fine appearance in the opera with Bailey even riding it!) On a cycle ride in the country, Polly met a girl Christabel (Hailey West) who opened his eyes to the possibilities of beauty and relationships (but promptly disabuses him too!)

After the marriage (and the passage of 15 years) Sophie Jin as Miriam (Polly’s wife) had one of the opera’s most memorable moments as sang an aria commenting on her hatred of cooking and housework whilst taking her temper out on some dough she was making!

Longstaff’s style was tonal, and he is able to write tunes. At times the music seemed to emulate the popular music of the period (circa 1910). But other scene-setting instrumental interludes veered into somewhat darker and more serious territory. The choral narration was an engaging feature of the piece which gave it a very particular (and rather effective) texture. However, the solo recitative sections seemed to lack the requisite lightness the piece called for and sometimes seemed to rather plod.

Robin Bailey carried the show very effectively, managing to charm even when Polly was being dim and idiotic. His mishaps were signalled a mile off, but Bailey carried you along. The other singers moved in an out of character with engaging wit.

In total the piece told its story rather well. By the end you rather cared for Bailey’s Mr Polly. However, the overall tone did not feel quite right, and we thought veering closer to operetta might have worked well, creating something more consistently comic and light.

The cast used scores during the choral narration and came off the book for their solos. Stuart Barker’s production might have had a workshop feel to it – a row of costumes for cast members to pick up and take off. But it was enormously effective with some moments of real fun. John Longstaff gamely played the piano reduction. Edward Longstaff’s writing not always fitting easily under the fingers.

It remains a challenge to present a character like Alfred Polly on stage. Clearly Britten’s Albert Herring is one model, especially in the deprecating way the character addressed the audience. But by giving us only Part One (inevitable given economics and the format of the Festival), we were deprived of the second part of the story where Polly really does come into his own.

Edward Longstaff: The History of Mr. Polly: Part One Laurie Slavin as Parsons Tête à Tête (Photo Claire Shovelton)

A significant amount of work had gone into the performance and the capacity audience were clearly engaged. This is a work in progress so I await the full version with interest.

The History of Mr Polly Part One

Composer/Conductor: Edward Longstaff

Mr Polly: Robin Bailey

Parsons: Laurie Slavin

Mr Johnson: Jack Holton

Mrs Johnson: Maya Kumana

Annie: Emily McCarthy

Miriam: Sophia Jin

Ma Larkins: Elizabeth Lynch

Christabel: Hailey West

Director: Stuart Barker

Designers: Valassia Barboutis and Maria J. Damia Patino

Lighting Designer: Ace McCarron

Movement Director: Ruth Howard

Accompanist: John Longstaff

Stage Manager: Julian Johnson