The Pirates Of Penzance at Festival Theatre

Gilbert and Sullivan as it’s meant to be – pure, uncomplicated fun, performed to the highest of standards. This new co-production with D’Oyly Carte Opera Company – returning to the stage for the first time in over 10 years – is conducted by G&S expert and D’Oyly Carte Music Director John Owen Edwards. Director Martin Lloyd-Evans stages a vibrant, stylish, all singing, all dancing show.

A young man bound by an overactive sense of duty, a soft-hearted pirate king with a hopeless band of rogues at his side, a beautiful young girl, a very modern major-general and an ineffectual bevy of policemen…add a plot hinging on the technicalities of having a birthday on the 29th of February and we’re just about there. What could possibly go wrong?

Mercilessly parodying Victorian society and its very particular moral values, The Pirates of Penzance is exquisitely observed and wonderfully funny. Gilbert’s high-speed patter is razor sharp and Sullivan’s score sees him at the top of his game, mixing an operatic style to rival the great Italians of his day with the catchy, witty melodies for which he is so well known. The fantastic ensemble cast includes celebrated G&S stalwarts Steven Page and Richard Suart, and Scottish Opera favourite Graeme Broadbent (The Barber of Seville 2011, The Rake’s Progress 2012).