Trial by Jury & The Zoo Tickets at the London Coliseum
Two short comic operas about the same doomed engagement: one where the couple get together, one where she takes him to court over it. Gilbert & Sullivan in an eighties setting, and you are out in under an hour and a half.
1 hour 25 minutes, with no interval
At the London Coliseum, near Leicester Square and Charing CrossCloses 12 March 2027
Next available
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020 7193 9050 · Monday to Saturday 8am to 8pm, Sunday 10am to 8pm
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What You Get for One Ticket
Two one-act comic operas, played as a prequel and a sequel to the same love story, and the whole thing runs 1 hour 25 minutes with no interval.
The Zoo comes first. Two couples at the zoo, hidden identities, a secret marriage and a set of mix-ups that somehow end in an engagement. Music by Sullivan, words by Bolton Rowe rather than Gilbert, and English National Opera have never staged it before.
Trial by Jury follows immediately. The same engagement has collapsed, and Angelina is suing Edwin for breach of promise. The courtroom falls apart, and the judge solves the case by marrying the plaintiff himself. It was Gilbert and Sullivan's first success, the piece that turned them into a partnership.
Mary Bevan and Robert Murray play both couples, so you watch the same two performers get engaged in the first piece and take each other to court in the second.
Who It Is For
Anyone who thinks opera means a long night. At 1 hour 25 minutes this is shorter than most plays and one of the shortest things ENO put on all season. It is funny on purpose and it is sung in English.
Anyone bringing someone who has never been. Nothing at this address is a gentler way in.
Gilbert and Sullivan regulars, for The Zoo, which is close to unperformable outside a specialist company and which ENO have never done.
Less good for anyone wanting scale, spectacle or an evening that fills the evening.
The Staging
Directed by John Savournin, a Gilbert and Sullivan specialist, and set by him in the 1980s. Designs by takis, lighting by Ben Pickersgill, choreography by Kally Lloyd-Jones.
Trial by Jury comes from Scottish Opera's 2025 production. The Zoo is a new staging, made for ENO.
Performance Schedule
| Date | Day | Times |
|---|---|---|
| 4 March | Thursday | 7:30pm |
| 6 March | Saturday | 2pm and 6pm |
| 11 March | Thursday | 3pm and 7:30pm |
| 12 March | Friday | 3pm and 7:30pm |
Seven performances, but only four days. Three of those four days have two performances, and the start times are 7:30pm, 6pm, 3pm and 2pm depending on which one you pick. Check the time on your date, not the day.
Running time 1 hour 25 minutes, with no interval.
Cast and Creative Team
Mary Bevan and Robert Murray each play two roles, one in each opera.
| Performer | In The Zoo | In Trial by Jury |
|---|---|---|
| Mary Bevan | Laetitia Grinder | Angelina, the Plaintiff |
| Robert Murray | Aesculapius | Edwin, the Defendant |
| Neal Davies | The Learned Judge | |
| Madeleine Shaw | Eliza Smith | |
| Alex Otterburn | Thomas Brown | |
| Jonathan Lemalu | Mr Grinder | |
| Henry Neill | Counsel for the Plaintiff | |
| Trevor Eliot Bowes | Usher | |
| Paul Sheehan | The Foreman |
Conducted by Peter Whelan, an Olivier Award winner. Directed by John Savournin.
Book Your Tickets
Four days and seven performances is a short window, and two of them are matinees at 3pm on consecutive days. If you want a particular one, book it rather than assume.
We sell with all-in pricing, so the price you see is the price you pay. Call 020 7193 9050.
Dates & tickets
FAQs
Yes. One ticket, one sitting, both pieces, no interval between them.
1 hour 25 minutes, straight through. The Zoo plays first and Trial by Jury follows it directly.
No. Get your drinks and use the facilities before it starts.
Yes, with surtitles above the stage.
No. These are the shortest and most straightforward things they wrote, and the plots are a broken engagement and a court case.
Because for most of a century there was nothing to perform from. Sullivan never published the score, and his own manuscript was lost to public view until it turned up at auction in 1966.
No age guidance has been set. It is comedy with no difficult content, and at 85 minutes with no interval it is one of the shortest evenings at this address, so it works for older children who will follow a courtroom joke.
Seven, across only four days, and three of those days are doubles.
Closer than you would for a grand opera, because comedy needs faces. Centre Stalls or the front of the Dress Circle. Avoid the first three Stalls rows and the back four rows of the Dress Circle (H to L), where the surtitle screen is hard to read. See our London Coliseum guide.
Yes, on Thursday 11 March 2027 at 3pm.
Where to Sit
Centre Stalls rows B to H are the best in the building. The ends of either circle sit nearer the stage than the middle seats and cost less, because the circles wrap round the Stalls rather than hanging over them.
Buy closer for this than for anything else at this address. Comedy is carried on faces and timing, and the Coliseum is the largest theatre in the West End, so a joke played to the back of the Upper Circle has a long way to travel. The value seat here is the end of the Dress Circle, which is nearer the stage than the middle of it and costs less.
The surtitle screen is unreadable from the back four rows of the Dress Circle (H to L) and the back two of the Upper Circle (K and L), and nearly overhead in the first three Stalls rows. It matters here: both pieces are sung throughout with no spoken dialogue, so the screen carries every word of the jokes.
No lift to the Upper Circle.
Seating plan
Dates & tickets
Booking now
The London Coliseum
St Martin's Lane, WC2N 4ES, three minutes from Charing Cross and Leicester Square. Around 2,380 seats over four levels, the largest theatre in the West End. Buses 24, 29 and 176 run along Charing Cross Road and stop a couple of minutes away. Full detail in our London Coliseum guide.
Arrive 20 to 25 minutes before, no later. There is no interval to slip in at, and on a piece this short a late arrival costs you a real share of it. The 2pm and 3pm starts are the ones people get wrong.
It finishes early. A 7:30pm performance is out before nine, which makes dinner afterwards straightforward rather than a scramble.
Address
St Martin's Lane, London WC2N 4ES
Nearest Tube
Leicester Square and Charing Cross
The Company
Mary Bevan and Robert Murray lead both pieces, playing a different couple in each: Laetitia Grinder and Aesculapius in The Zoo, then Angelina and Edwin in Trial by Jury.
Neal Davies is The Learned Judge, following his Sir Joseph in ENO's HMS Pinafore. Madeleine Shaw sings Eliza Smith, Alex Otterburn is Thomas Brown and Jonathan Lemalu is Mr Grinder in The Zoo. Henry Neill is Counsel for the Plaintiff, Trevor Eliot Bowes the Usher and Paul Sheehan the Foreman in Trial by Jury.
Conductor Peter Whelan. Director John Savournin. Set and costumes takis. Lighting Ben Pickersgill. Choreography Kally Lloyd-Jones.
About This Production
Trial by Jury comes from Scottish Opera's 2025 staging. The Zoo is performed at English National Opera for the first time, in a new production.
Both were written in 1875, both are one act, and both are sung throughout with no spoken dialogue, which is unusual for Gilbert and Sullivan and is why the surtitle screen carries the whole text.
They were connected from the start. The Zoo contains a parody of Offenbach's La Périchole, which at the time was sharing a bill with Trial by Jury at a theatre nearby, and the joke only worked because audiences knew that. Putting the two on together is an older idea than it looks.
We will add reviews once the production has opened on 4 March 2027.
Trial by Jury & The Zoo
London Coliseum
