We are delighted to announce our next opera project at the Vienna Volksoper: a new adaptation of Gilbert & Sullivan’s THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE.

Following the success of ORPHEUS IN THE UNDERWORLD which has now enjoyed three sell-out seasons at the Volksoper since its debut in 2023, we are turning our Opera of the Funny guns on those giants of English comic opera, WS Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan.

Toby and Aitor have invited Viennese writer and dramaturg Jennifer Weiss to create a new adaptation of Gilbert & Sullivan’s most acclaimed work, in German and English.

The project re-unites Spymonkey directing team Toby Park and Aitor Basauri with designer Julian Crouch and choreographer Gail Skrela.

We are also delighted to be working again with Spymonkey co-founder Petra Massey, returning from her long-term secondment with Spiegelworld Las Vegas for the first time since 2019. Petra and fellow UK clown Lucy Hopkins play the great-grand-daughters of Gilbert and Sullivan, keen to reclaim their ancestors’ radical topsy-turvy spirit from asphyxiation by English provincial am-dram hum-drum traditionalism. Marcel Mohab plays a cultural minister with an axe to grind, and Katharina Pizzera blunts it with her steely gaze of wither.

A shoal of sub-aquatic policemen, skull-and-cross-bone-dressing pirates, a straight-talking nursemaid, mis-firing cannon, plank-walking, parrot-talking, up-staging, keel-hauling, kraken-waking, prank-pulling mayhem for lovers of anarchy, laughter and shellfish.

Booking and performance details on the Volksoper website here.

from Volksoper pages:

In the 19th century, Penzance was one of the most idyllic and peaceful little towns on the British isle. Pirates… here?! The kings of English operetta, the writing duo Gilbert & Sullivan, had a knack for humorously subverting their audience’s expectations. With this satirical and subversive “recipe,” they created one hit after another.

The rather absurd plot of The Pirates of Penzance would have done proud even to the British humor of Monty Python back in the 19th century: A young man is not trained as a pilot, but instead apprenticed to the Pirates of Penzance because his hard-of-hearing governess confuses the words “pilot” and “pirate.” Upon turning 21, Frederic should have completed his apprenticeship—if only he hadn’t been born in a leap year! According to pirate logic, that makes him just five years old… From this existential dilemma unfolds a love story between the young pirate apprentice and Mabel, a young lady from the British military aristocracy…

The physical comedy duo Spymonkey scored a hit with Orpheus in the Underworld at the Volksoper, winning over both audience and critics. With The Pirates of Penzance, they turn their attention to the most British of all operettas!

In German and English language with German and English surtitles.