Pirates of Penzance

(first theatre benefit from recent birthday gift)

The Stephen Joseph Theatre Company in

The Pirates of Penzance

By W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
Adapted and directed by Chris Monks

Frederic is loyal, young and free from his apprenticeship to a hopeless, blundering band of pirates. When he falls for Mabel, daughter of a Major General, this and the abandoning of his pirate ways causes distress to the Pirate King and his lovelorn nursery maid, Ruth. Frederic is cajoled, threatened and tricked by the pirates and with the help of a pathetic posse of policemen, chaos ensues with hilarious consequences.

Cutlasses are exchanged for guns as pirates scowl behind dark glasses and rule the waves like a Mafia of the high seas. This is classic Gilbert and Sullivan with a Reservoir Dogs twist.

“It’s Gilbert and Sullivan but not as we know it – and it’s all the better for that”
The Daily Mail

“… fresh and funny, the adaptation highly imaginative”
The Daily Telegraph

After Ayckbourn: Chris Monks takes the reigns at Scarborough

He's done a cricketing Mikado and once set Figaro in a gym. Now Chris Monks has got his hands on Alan Ayckbourn's theatre. He tells Alfred Hickling what he's planning.

• The Guardian, Thursday 30 April 2009

At the end of the 1990s, Chris Monks, a writer, composer and former van driver, was asked to direct a drama school production of The Mikado on a budget so tight it didn't even extend to Japanese costumes. So Monks simply rescored the piece and set it on a cricket pitch. "I'm a keen cricketer," he says. "I realised I couldn't have Samurai armour. But I knew I could get hold of some batsmen's togs on the cheap."

Monks's Mikado was so successful, he was invited to remount it professionally at the New Vic in Newcastle-under-Lyme. It led to a series of radical, operatic makeovers that included Carmen as a check-out girl, the Marriage of Figaro set in a gym, and HMS Pinafore transplanted to a fast-food restaurant; one character attempted suicide by diving into a deep fat fryer.

Now Monks, 54, is making another radical move - taking over from Alan Ayckbourn as artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre. When Ayckbourn announced his departure, it was far from certain who would fill the void. The company has only had two directors since 1955, when Stephen Joseph established the country's first in-the-round auditorium in a spare room above the Scarborough public library. It seemed unlikely that there were many writer/directors out there who shared Ayckbourn's passion for basing their careers in a small repertory theatre on the north-east coast.

But Monks, who has been writing, composing and directing for 30 years, couldn't be happier with his first permanent job. "It has always been my ambition to run a theatre, but it had to be the right one," says Monks, who was attracted by the venue's intimacy. "I wouldn't want to run the National. I wouldn't even want to run the West Yorkshire Playhouse. This theatre is the perfect size for me."

Although he may not have the highest profile, Monks is well qualified, having extensive experience of the country's principal in-the-round auditoria, including the Royal Exchange in Manchester and the Orange Tree in Richmond. He comes to Scarborough having been associate director at the New Vic in Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Like his predecessor, Monks is a theatrical all-rounder who learned on the job. Originally from Sheffield, he trained as a musician and was hired by the Royal Exchange as a van driver before graduating to in-house composer. His big break came when he wrote the music for Trafford Tanzi, Claire Luckham's play about a female wrestler, which became a hit in the 1980s, starring Toyah Willcox in London and Debbie Harry on Broadway.

The test-match Mikado was Monks's first foray as a director. His mini-operas may be irreverent, but they show a deep knowledge and respect for their original sources. In some cases, they even improve on them. The mystic plot of The Magic Flute made sense as an X-Files alien abduction scenario, while Don Giovanni's inexplicable escapes were explained by casting him as a theatrical illusionist complete with disappearing cabinet. Monks says his aim is "to encourage opera-shy audiences to try the form by tipping the balance in favour of drama. Opera productions can be so overblown - it's surprising how powerful it becomes in an intimate setting."

Monks's first season opens tonight with Ron Hutchinson's Hollywood comedy, Moonlight and Magnolias, and concludes with his own adaptation of The Pirates of Penzance, which, appropriately for Scarborough, is set on a beach. Ayckbourn will return to direct a 40th-anniversary production of his How the Other Half Loves. Surprisingly, Ayckbourn had no influence in choosing his successor: he has never had a contract with the theatre and the appointment was entirely the decision of the board.

There will be new Ayckbourn plays for as long as he continues to produce them, although the writer does not like to assume the new boss will reserve a place for him. At the same time, Monks knows the theatre cannot trade on Ayckbourn's reputation indefinitely: "Nobody knows when Alan is going to write his last play," he says. "There are perhaps some people who would like to see this place become a kind of shrine, offering endless revivals of his work. I think that would be a mistake."

Monks's main ambition is to make the theatre appeal to locals as well as tourists. He promises an expansion of family-oriented work, more shows with shorter runs, and a commitment to the theatre's concentration on new writing. He hints at having a "major, Yorkshire writer" lined up for next season, but won't reveal who just yet.

For many, the Stephen Joseph will always be "Alan Ayckbourn's theatre". But Monks clearly intends to be his own man: "Stephen Joseph said you should destroy whatever you have after seven years and start again. By his own reckoning, we've been here 47 years too long already."