Moebius Theatre hoists the Jolly Roger
Pirates of Penzance offers puffy shirts, suede pants and a topsy-turvy plot
PREVIEW
THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE
Morpheus Theatre
Runs April 12 to 20
Pumphouse Theatres
Not many people can justify wearing suede pants and a puffy shirt – let alone carry it off – but for Dave Gagnier, it’s all part of getting in touch with his inner pirate.
Gagnier plays Frederick in Morpheus Theatre’s production of The Pirates of Penzance. Mistakenly indentured to a band of pirates, Frederick spends 21 long years fulfilling his contract by apprenticing to be a good buccaneer.
"It’s all about the pants. I thought it was going to be all about the shirt and the openness of the shirt, but it turns out it’s all about the pants," says a grinning Gagnier.
It’s great that Gagnier relishes the humour in his character because that’s what W.S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan intended. For 130 years, their topsy-turvy plots and satirization of love, honour, class and duty have kept audiences packing houses. The Pirates of Penzance stands as one of their most beloved and most performed works (including the bad 1983 movie version starring Kevin Kline as the Pirate King and Angela Lansbury as Ruth). That being said, Gagnier strives to bring new elements to his well-known character.
"My character’s very naive and very confused. He’s like a New Orleans version of Tarzan because he’s been entirely raised by the Pirates of Penzance," muses Gagnier. "I’m trying to add a little bit more naiveté, if that’s at all possible, to the character. I don’t see him being as smarmy as some of the other Fredericks I’ve seen – maybe a little bit more nervous and unsure. But man – he loves the ladies."
And that love of ladies is the catalyst that sets the play in motion. When Frederick leaves the pirates, he takes his former nursemaid Ruth as a fiancé, thinking she’s beautiful and worthy of marriage. When he sees Mabel and her sisters prancing on a beach, he quickly rids himself of the spinster.
"Mabel is not the first good-looking woman he’s seen, but she’s the first one who takes any kind of active interest in him, which is all he needs," says Gagnier. "As it stands, he’s pretty much betrothed to someone who acts as his mother, who was his nursemaid and has grown up with him – and she’s twice his age and a little bit amorous about the situation. So, I think he’s thankful to be out of the promise."
Don’t try to ponder the Freudian implications of a young man almost marrying his mother figure – it happens in nearly every play by Gilbert & Sullivan. The best thing to do is revel in the silliness. Accept that the girls are helpless against the ambushing pirates. Believe that their father, Major-General Stanley (Greg Spielman), can save them by pretending to be an orphan. Understand that Frederick – who was in fact born on a leap year and is thus only five-and-one-quarter years old – is duty-bound to reveal the Major-General’s fib when indentured to the pirates again. And just delight in the folly of what promises to be a grand production. |
