Pirates is one of the most popular and enduring G&S comic operas. Of course it has the typical absurdity … Young Frederic was apprenticed to a band of tender-hearted pirates — because his nurse mis-heard the instruction to sign him up for a ‘pilot’. He is bound by contract until he reaches his 21st birthday. He is now released, free to pursue a law-abiding life, and his new-found love of Mabel, the daughter of Major-General Stanley (“I am the very model of a modern major-general”). But no! It emerges that Frederic was born on the 29th of February, and so has a birthday only once each leap year — meaning that he must serve for another 63 years! … and his sense of duty leads him to return to the pirate life. A farcical battle between the pirates and the police, overwhelming loyalty to Queen Victoria, and a startling revelation lead to a happy ending.

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Director Terry Pratt adapted things to be set on PEI.

A bonus: doing a banquet appearance for a convention of the Motion Picture Theatre Association of Canada earned ACT an extra $4000.