Theatre

Polite pirates, inept policemen and a bevy of beautiful maidens – it can only be G & S and audiences have flocked to see this latest performance of the pair’s most popular work. 

The Bristol Gilbert and Sullivan Society has chosen an apt year for its Pirates of Penzance – 2008 is, after all, a Leap Year, and the plot hinges on the 29 February birthday of the hapless apprentice Frederic (Allan Bennett) who thinks he can leave his pirate mentors having reached his 21st year. 

Imagine then his dismay at discovering he is in fact just a shade over five! He is torn between the opposing worlds of sympathetic piracy (the ever-friendly, educated pirates consider picking on those weaker than themselves bad form) and law enforcement.  

Following Frederic on his journey, we hear some of the most celebrated tunes ever to be penned by Arthur Sullivan. 

Adrian Cooper was word perfect in “matters animal, vegetable and mineral” in the tongue-twisting Major-General’s ever-boastful opening song, Rachael Cooper sang beautifully as Frederic’s love interest Mabel, and the operatic Iain Arnold would give Johnny Depp a run for his doubloons in the entertaining pirate-stakes.

This was a professional production from a group with a new artistic vision. 

When not spending his time with a G&S libretto, director John Telfer plays the Vicar in the Archers. Here his dramatic flourishes were plainly evident, filling some of the awkward pauses that G&S can throw up. 

Often casts appear short of ideas in the gaps between verses and songs, but improvised moves involving ladies’ umbrellas and pirouetting policemen made for an altogether better spectacle. 

The neatly-choreographed full chorus finales produced a fantastic sound and the wardrobe mistress Barbara Burt deserves praise and a long holiday after sourcing a huge array of costumes including two silk dressing gowns for the Major-General worthy of Noel Coward. 

The run was a deserved sell-out and tickets should disappear just as quickly next year when the group turns its attentions to Japan and the ever-popular Mikado.