Synopsis

Act I

Princess Ida, betrothed in infancy to Prince Hilarion is today, twenty years later, due to be delivered to her bridegroom. Her father, King Gama, arrives without her, gleefully announcing that she has forsworn men and now rules a women’s university, where she teaches the triumph of brain over brawn and where no man may set foot. Hilarion’s father, King Hildebrand, declares war, taking King Gama and his three sons hostage until Ida changes her mind. Hilarion is certain his charms can win Ida back, so he and two friends, Florian and Cyril, set out for her university.

Act Ii

At Castle Adamant, Princess Ida dazzles her disciples while her deputy, Lady Blanche, plots to overthrow her. Meanwhile, Hilarion and his two friends scale the castle walls and, finding themselves evidently male in a resolutely female safe space, scramble into girls’ academic robes just as Princess Ida appears. She admits them as women undergraduates but the dishonesty of their self-identification is discovered by Lady Psyche, Florian’s sister, and Melissa, Lady Blanche’s daughter, both of whom, for reasons of their own, agree to keep their secret. Melissa silences Lady Blanche too, by pointing out that if Hilarion takes Ida away to be his wife, Blanche can take her place. A drunken scuffle reveals the real identity of the boys and Ida, horrified at the violation, chains them up just as King Hildebrand’s vast army storms her castle gates.

The girls strap on their armour and yell defiance until they suddenly remember that they are conscientious objectors and leave Ida to fight alone. King Hildebrand finds he is unwilling to fight with women, so he unshackles King Gama to persuade Ida to allow her fate to be decided by unarmed combat between her three brutish brothers and the rather less rugged Hilarion, Cyril and Florian.The outcome is as astonishing as Ida’s subsequent meticulously reasoned decision is unexpected.