Pirates Of Penzance
Regent's
Park Theatre
This Is
London
2001 Urban pirates in
the park!
Is it Gilbert or is it Sullivan,
the treasure presented by the Pirates of Penzance?
At Regent’s Park Theatre in the open air the
(amplified) words get closest attention. But, of
course they are inseparable twins, G and S. It’s
tunes that you come out humming, even if Steven
Edis’s incredibly economical arrangement for
this 1980 Joe Papp New York Central Park version
is hard on Sullivan.
It uses eight instrumentalists,
two with versatile electronic keyboards,
including the excellent musical director,
Catherine Jayes — as in last year’s
memorably energetic staging by Ian Talbot, of
which this version, with new sets and different
costumes, is a close cousin. Singing may not be
the whole point. But even in Victorian punning
rhyming rap, the patter of tiny words benefits
from firmer voices. Sullivan’s sturdy thread
deserves better.
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It’s
wonderful theatrical gamesmanship. All the gently
satirical elements are deliciously unfading:
nursemaid Ruth’s ludicrous mistake
indenturing Fred as an apprentice pirate, his
leap-year birthday, the revelation that the
pirates are just peers who have gone wrong, a
topical arrow scoring bull’s-eye laughs.
Mabel (Karen Evans) may sound a bit Minnie Mouse
when she’s at a high climax. But we shouldn’t
be too snooty about the singing, even if quality
is vocally down a notch. Su Pollard’s far
from plain Ruth manages her numbers very nicely.
The ensemble is robust.
Gary Wilmot’s ultra-friendly Pirate King,
all thumbs with a rapier except when he’s
into sword-swallowing, is more relaxed than David
Alder’s whiskery, slightly uptight Major
General.
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Joshua
Dallas’s engaging grinning Fred has a ball,
though his slavery to duty is more than a little
tongue in cheek. When the Sergeant (Giles Taylor)
thinks of strategic withdrawal but realises
"It’s too late now", his style
evokes Kenneth Williams. There’s nothing
plodding about the arresting balletic footwork of
constabulary duty in Penzance.
Tom Sutcliffe
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