Help! Pirates have hijacked this year's musical production from the students of Chatelech Secondary and will be appearing nightly on the Chat theatre stage from May 11 to 13.
Ever since actor Johnny Depp first peered through mascara lashes in The Black Pearl, a movie about Caribbean buccaneers, the pirate theme has shown a renewed surge of popularity.
The Lady Pirates of Captain Bree offers a new take on an old theme. In this case, the pirate crew are all women set upon a life of swashbuckling on the high seas under the leadership of their diminutive captain played by Astrid Jackson. Each lady pirate has some defining characteristic: one talks all the time, another follows the rules, one loves men, the other feels they're nothing but trouble, and so on.
When they take over the Kayla May and hold the passengers as captives, they tangle with Captain Jennings (Cody Slevin) and the family of a British ambassador including Madam Prescot, performed with great charm by Alex Gerwing. The Prescot entourage includes her nephew (Brynn Clingwall) who chooses an interesting way of hiding from the pirates, and her niece played by Hannah Westlake, who longs for adventure and quickly decides to join the pirates."This ship has no treasure, so you'll just have to do," snarls one lady pirate as she prepares to auction off the captured crew and passengers. A self-important captive whom no one wants at auction (Jordan Martel) is made to walk the plank urged on by Westlake in her first test of pirating. Will she live up to her words or fail her test?
The play is about proving oneself, says drama teacher Paddy McCallum, about living up to potential whether in a man's world or not. There's some fun with sex role stereotypes and their reversal that's appropriate to the grades 8 through 12 who are taking part.
One of the strengths of Lady Pirates is the catchy music with Gilbert and Sullivan style lyrics that definitely owes its inspiration to Pirates of Penzance or Pinafore. The musical comedy was written by Martin Follose with music and lyrics by Bill Francoeur.
The shipboard set for the show was made by the trades math class at Chatelech, while the choreography is by senior student Casey Baker. A number of teachers are involved doing coaching, makeup and costumes, including Patrice Pollack as singing coach and Tracy Lloyd as physical comedy instructor.
Tickets for $10 ($5 for students) are available at the school and at the Roberts Creek General Store, Coast Books and Talewind Books.
