For nearly 150 years your comedic story has endured: part operetta, part musical. You made John English synonymous with the late eighties and early nineties. You’ve enjoyed being a send-up of politics and contemporary culture – and popular culture has enjoyed featuring send-ups of you. Commercials and video games, through to The Simpsons and Doctor Who – there are traces of you everywhere. (Just look up ‘Despicable Me 3 – Minions Idol Scene’ for the tip of the viral iceberg).
But you know, we reckon it’s easy to do satire with a lavish band of pirates and a full orchestra at your disposal. A cast of five, squeezed into the Hayes Theatre with little more than a piano? Well, that’s ballsy. In fact, it sounds like a downright disaster on paper. (Which is probably why we hadn’t told our ‘plus-one’s anything about you until it’s too late to leave the theatre. Sorry friends).
So, to confirm: you share the same name, plot and tunes of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, but you are a different ride altogether. And to heck with it – it now turns out we may never want to watch the full-scale version of you ever again. Yes Pirates, you’ve cracked the formula on how to crank out more laughs, and it goes something like this:
1. Make a parody of yourself (everyone loves self-deprecating cheek) – Oh, but keep all the tried and tested stuff in.
2. Insert the absurdity of five people continually rotating through multiple characters (occasionally in drag)
3. Make a parody of the absurdity of five people continually rotating through multiple characters (how else to get through a number like ‘The Policeman’s Song’?)
4. Sell lounge and bar stool seating ‘on the stage’, and get those suckers in on the action too (they had to know it was coming).
The result is a completely over-the-top, messy, gag-a-minute production, on a set so intimate we could all be sitting around someone’s living room watching our mates in a muck-around. Come to think of it, it’s impossible to tell where your stage stops and the audience begins. In that, you create a sense of… is it merriment? We want to cheer and clap along with you all the way. Genius move.
‘Is this really a musical? Or is it improv with swords?’ – The Pirate King, Act II
It might also explain why your stage never actually looks lonely. This is despite the scant cast, and despite a set that mostly consists of a piano that is wheeled from one side of the stage to the other (often while it’s still being played).
Meanwhile, all five of your cast members should be applauded for their ferocious determination to forgo all dignity in dedication to their character(s). And for their versatility in switching from operatic score, to pop, to – well…just plain outrageousness.
Maxwell Simon plays Frederic, a 21-year-old man who has just been released from his apprenticeship with a band of pirates. Simon is the perfect hero, endearing and earnest from start to end (which, surrounded by this much slapstick, is no mean feat).
Jay Laga’aia, as the Pirate King (and Police Sargeant and a sister), is so at home leading this kooky show that it’s easy to forget he’s ever done anything else. Brittanie Shipway, as both Ruth and Mabel, and Billie Palin, as the entire ensemble (and the entire onstage swing), both roll with these ridiculous responsibilities with ease.
Trevor Jones has the rare honour of appearing under both the ‘cast’ list (as the Major General, and a sister, and a policeman), and with the ‘creative team’ (as the Musical Director). He also plays most of the score accompaniment on the piano as well. To say this is agile work would be an understatement. His rendition of the infamous ‘I Am The Very Model of a Modern Major-General’ – re-energised, popularised, and Australian-ised – is worth a ticket itself.
Yes Pirates, you’re a completely improper and mischievous voyage. But without straying from the spirit of the original. You’re the show we plan a night out to see, in order to feel like we’re having a warm, cosy, and nostalgic night in. You’re Gilbert and Sullivan, but packed with even more fun (as any good pirate adventure should be). Hurrah to the Pirate King!
With love,
The Pirates of Penzance (or The Slave of Duty) is showing at the Hayes Theatre until 16 March 2025. Images supplied.
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