In this ‘impossible’ musical the cast has to do the lot

Jay Laga’aia had always wanted to play the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance; always wanted an excuse to say “Argghh!” on stage. Then the actor best known as Captain Typho in the Star Wars films learned that if he accepted the role in Richard Carroll’s new production, he must also take on multiple other characters, male and female, because it was being performed with a cast of just five, rather than 20. And there was more: he’d also be playing harmonica, ukulele and guitar, as the cast would also be the orchestra.

The cast of just five - Billie Palin, Trevor Jones, Jay Laga’aia, Brittanie Shipway and Maxwell Simon - is kept busy in this scaled down version of The Pirates of Penzance.Credit: John McRae

“It’s a huge undertaking for five people,” Laga’aia says. “But that’s part of the danger, and I think that’s part of the joy that people will come to see. It’s about quality and not quantity!”

Carroll hit upon miniaturising Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera because a full production could never be accommodated at the tiny Hayes Theatre, where he is co-artistic director.

“I just love the idea of doing things that seem impossible,” he says, “and working out how they might work. Initially, when I went to adapt the script, I was just going to work out what a five-person version of the show looks like. Then as I got into it, I started to have my dramaturgical brain activated and ask, ‘Well, what if this happened?’… So, it’s turned into its own thing really. It still has the songs and characters people know, but it’s become a – what do you call it?”

“A monster!” Laga’aia chimes in.

Carroll laughs, and says he hopes the show might have the same impact as it had for audiences at its 1879 premiere. “It’s not about turning it into something different,” he says, “it’s just about hopefully bringing out what the joys of the show are for today’s audience.”

For purists, fiddling with Gilbert’s words might seem akin to fiddling with the Bible, but Carroll wanted to bend the characters to his needs. Much of Gilbert’s work remains intact, and elsewhere Carroll has been at such pains to replicate his style and language that sometimes when a line has been cut during rehearsals, no one’s been sure whether it was originally Gilbert’s or his.

He has also protected the glories of Gilbert’s metre, and how his words bounce on the melodies. “That,” he says, “is something that I’ve been super cautious about: to honour that scansion and make sure that the stress falls on certain words. I’ve been very inspired by him and very aware of how brilliant he was in that respect: something like the [I Am the Very Model of a Modern] Major General song, of course, and the glorious bending of language so it’s almost torturous, and yet it makes it a joy to explore and pick at because you are not taking something that needs fixing or making better. It’s like the joy of working with an incredibly put together gold watch, and you have the privilege of just tinkering around with it.”

Especially busy will be musical director Trevor Jones, who plays piano or accordion throughout, while also taking on several roles including the major general. “He’s the backbone of the musical accompaniment,” Carroll says, “and the actors [Brittanie Shipway, Maxwell Simon and Billie Palin, aside from Laga’aia] are playing instruments at different times.”

Laga’aia enthuses about the production’s playfulness, which he thinks will allow “an eight-year-old to sit there and laugh all the way through at the absurdity, next to a 50-year-old who sees the technicality, and I suppose the complexity. We have audience members who actually are on stage with us on couches and seats, so they become part of our pirate clan or part of our police when we hand out stuff to them. It gives them permission to enjoy, and also to be part of the event itself.”

Unlike some cast members, Laga’aia is used to playing instruments, having been in bands in a past life. “You’re not Polynesian unless you play at least four instruments and harmonise!” he says. He’s also particularly attuned to his potential impact as a role model.

“Part of the reason I do a lot of this stuff is to give those in the audience permission to keep going,” he says. “You have our permission to play your instrument and to sing your songs because at the end of the day, you could be up here as well.”

Carroll agrees, and is equally keen on stretching his performers in directions they thought beyond their powers. Another plus of his pocket-sized show is that it can readily tour, so it’s visiting Wyong, Wollongong and Canberra, a first for a Hayes production.

The Pirates of Penzance: Hayes Theatre, February 14 to March 16.