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Pirates Of Penzance staged by Illyria at Newark Castle




The final production of the outdoor theatre season at Newark Castle is staged next week.

Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera Pirates Of Penzance is performed in the castle grounds on Friday, September 2, by Illyria theatre company.

With sharp satire and wit, the show is as fresh as if it had been written today.

An outdoor production at Newark Castle. (58758911)
An outdoor production at Newark Castle. (58758911)

Frederick, apprenticed to the Pirates since a child, learns that he was born in a leap year on February 29, and that he is contracted to the Pirate King until his 21st birthday, not his 21st year.

With only the inept Penzance constabulary to protect him, how will he resist being forced to endure a life of crime until he is 84 ­— and will his sweetheart, Mabel, wait for him that long?

Performed by a cast of six actors and singers with specially-orchestrated jauntily-nautical accompaniment, The Pirates Of Penzance gets the complete Illyria treatment.

Despite the reduction in scale, not a single word from WS Gilbert’s libretto is cut, nor a single note from Sir Arthur Sullivan’s score unsung.

It is full of memorable songs, such as To Be A Pirate King!, Modern Major General and A Policeman’s Lot Is Not a Happy One.

​Tickets are available from the Palace Theatre box office.



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