Spymonkey’s adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan’s infamous Pirates of Penzance sets sail in the landlocked Volksoper opera house in Vienna.

We’re delighted to be working with Volksoper and the incredibly talented opera singers, chorus and the wider team to bring this production to life. And what better way raise the stakes than with Spymonkey’s founder, the informidable Petra Massey playing alongside longstanding collaborator and stunning clown Lucy Hopkins who play the roles of Gilbert and Sullivan’s great grand-daughters dead-set on creating a new, up-to-date version of this British classic operetta.

Artistic Director Toby Park says:

There’s plenty of funny delight in the Pirates of Penzance. Really stupid big laughs. 17th Century pirates anachronistically plonked off the coast of a genteel modern seaside resort. An arriviste know-all Major General with plaster-cast ‘ancestral’ statues. Clever, witty (and excellently stupid) conceits of paradoxes, misunderstandings, misconstrued morality, misplaced sentimentality, up-endings of logic and good sense that feel close to our Spymonkey comedy souls.

© Barbara Pálffy/Volksoper Wien

Stage and Costume Design by Julian Crouch, Choreography by Gail Skrela, Lighting by Phil Supple