Review: THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE is an Inventive Escapist Expression of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Comic Opera

Wednesday 19th February 2025, 7:30pm, Hayes Theatre

Director and Adaptor Richard Carroll delivers an inventively paired back production of Arthur Sullivan (Music) and W.S. Gilbert’s (Libretto) comic opera THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE.  Almost a century and a half after it premiered in New York, the work is given an extra depth of absurdity with a cast of 5 and the intimate performance space of Hayes Theatre.

Carroll, along with Victoria Falconer (Co-Arranger & Musical Supervisor), Dr. Trevor Jones (Musical Director & Co-Arranger & Performer) and Shannon Burns (Assistant Director & Choreographer), have adapted Gilbert and Sullivan’s work that originally required a cast of 10 characters, plus chorus.  They have, like many others that have performed songs from the G&S songbook, made updates to include contemporary references which helps to refresh the work and add a contemporary relatability.  The cast of Jones (The Major General & others), Jay Laga’aia (The Pirate King & others), Brittanie Shipway (Ruth, Mabel & others), Billie Palin (Isabel, Barry, Onstage Swing & others), and Maxwell Simon (Frederic) tell the story of Apprentice Pirate Frederic’s shift from indentured service to the Pirate King, a kindly outlaw who operates out of the Cornwall port of Penzance, to free man trying to adopt a life of respectability. 

As with Carroll’s hugely successful staging of Calamity Jane in 2017, he has opted to again involve the audience in the performance with chesterfields and cabaret tables turning the Hayes theatre into a combination of traditional seating and transverse staging with the performers interacting with those that have opted for the special seating.  In addition to the mismatched stage seating options, set designer Nick Fry gives the work a country community pantomime aesthetic with an assortment of items found on a budget and the use Jones’ upright piano, mounted on wheels, to mask areas and transform the space as it gets moved around the small raised stage.  While contemporary plastic toys are often used, the significantly incongruent element however is the LED cross that is used to represent the chapel on the Major General’s property as he appeals to the ancestors buried in its graveyard at the opening of Act 2.  Costume Designer Lily Mateljan employs artfully flexible costumes that allow the performers to shift easily between characters, some conducting quick changes in the dim lights of the sides of the stage but still in full view, much to the audience’s delight.  In order to achieve the necessary characters, most performers also work across gender and Mateljan plays up to this with hilarious moments like Jones and Laga’aia taking on the roles of two of Mabel’s sisters in bonnets and big skirts and a fine flourish of fans.

In the lead role Frederic, Maxwell Simon is captivating as the young man forced to decide between love and doing his duty, as the alternate title of the show “or The Slave of Duty” implies.  He has the requisite classical tenor voice while also having the dramatic and comedic sensibilities to ensure that the performance has a sense of earnestness to it despite the absurdity.  As the two significant women in Frederic’s life, his nursemaid Ruth and his young love Mabel, Brittanie Shipway is nothing short of fabulous.  She shifts easily between the sweet innocent daughter of a respectable family and the bold and brash pirate maid and ensures that each has their own distinctive sound and characterisation when the costume change is as simple as a pinned apron bib and tucked skirts. 

As the two heads of their respective societies, Jones and Laga’aia ensure that the Major-General and the Pirate King are given a particular presence while having an extreme absurdity.  Jones, in what he has advised is his Musical Theatre debut as an actor,  leans into a somewhat camp expression of the Major General that helps reinforce that while he’s adorned with medals, he may not have completely earned them as he shows himself to quite fearful of the promised attack from the Pirates, only saved when Frederic shares the Pirate King’s weak point with him.  Jones’ history leading live and loose piano bars and cabaret quiz nights at Adelaide Cabaret Festival and a long residency at Melbourne’s Butterfly Club ensures that he’s adept at singing and playing the piano and adding his own improvisation when necessary and his show stopping adaptation of the iconic “I Am The Very Model Of A Modern Major-General” is reminiscent of Phil Scott’s style of political satire.  As the Pirate King, Laga’aia gives a good gruff performance while ensuring that it is seen that underneath the bravado, he’s really a sensitive pussy cat, a trait that Frederic warns him is his downfall. The ensemble is rounded out by Palin taking on a multitude of rolls and she makes the most of the small characters with moments of note being leading the expression of an army of police officers with Laga’aia and switching to take over Jones’ keyboard as she looks on in horror as sister Mabel says she’ll marry Frederic.

Presented at a good pace with enough variety to keep the audience engaged without overwhelming, this production of THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE: OR THE SLAVE OF DUTY is a great chance to revisit Gilber and Sullivan’s classic work, with a few updates.  Jones and Falconer, As Musical Director and Musical Supervisor respectively, have ensured that the classical voice styling has been retained to showcase the performers capabilities while also including more contemporary musical theatre elements the help add character to the roles.  Carroll has ensured that the performers balance their performances between an awareness of the absurdity with a sincerity that they believe in the roles and choices.  An evening a delightful escapism from the real world while having a sweet underlying message, THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE is well worth catching for anyone wanting a bit of frivolous fun.

https://hayestheatre.com.au/event/the-pirates-of-penzance/

Photos: John McCrae

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