“Pour, oh, pour the pirate sherry; fill, O fill the pirate glass;
and, to make us more than merry, let the pirate bumper pass.”
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance, or Love and Duty in the Old West
October 30 – November 22, 2026
The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company is pleased to announce that it will present The Pirates of Penzance, for four weekends, from October 30 to November 22, 2026.
This production will be directed by Joe Andrews, with music direction by Dr. Randal Buikema.
The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company is mounting a perennial favorite with a new twist. Transposed to America’s Old West, The Pirates of Penzance maintains its supremely buoyant score, sense of adventure, and improbable paradoxes, but the action plays against the backdrop of the California-Nevada border during the Gold Rush. The pirates are sentimental bandits, the police are sheriffs and deputies, and love and duty win the day, of course!
Frederic, a prairie pirate’s apprentice, falls head-over-heels in love with Mabel, one of many daughters of Major-General Stanley. Frederic is due to be released from his apprenticeship as a prairie pirate on his 21st birthday, but there’s a snag … of course. Although very much in love, his dedication to duty is unshakeable. Can he find a way to live happily-ever-after with Mabel?
Embark on a delightful journey with The Pirates of Penzance, where we unravel the captivating (and modestly adapted) storyline of this timeless comic opera.
The Pirates of Penzance, or The Slave of Duty was Gilbert and Sullivan’s fifth collaboration, following their extraordinarily successful production of H.M.S. Pinafore. The Pirates of Penzance opened simultaneously in England and America. The opera premiered on December 31, 1879 at the Fifth Avenue Theater in New York with Sullivan conducting, but a single performance had been given on the previous day at the Royal Bijou Theatre, Paignton, England, to secure the British copyright. Finally, the opera opened on April 3, 1880, at the Opéra Comique in London, where it ran for 363 performances, having already been playing successfully for over three months in New York.
Information
The performances will be at the Conn Theater, at Plymouth Congregational Church, located at 1900 Nicollet Avenue South, in Minneapolis.
Friday and Saturday evening performances are at 7:30 pm. The Saturday and Sunday matinees are at 2:00 pm. For a more detailed performance calendar, visit our Tickets page.
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“Although our dark career sometimes involves the crime of stealing,
we rather think that we’re not altogether void of feeling.
Although we live by strife, we’re always sorry to begin it
for what, we ask, is life without a touch of Poetry in it?”
The Pirates of Penzance