Perhaps you’ve heard of them? I hadn’t. But apparently, Anne Bonny and Mary Read were pirates who sailed the seas in the early 1700’s, an era referred to as the Golden Age of Piracy.
It wasn’t a golden age for women, regardless of occupation. In this terrific micro-musical by Emily Whiting and Aiden Smith, Bonny and Read must navigate a man’s world. Apart from physical dangers, they face heteronormative bigotry and male unwillingness to accept them as equals.
But it’s not a story of victims. It presents two extraordinary individuals who are more than equal to adversity, and to most of the men. Utterly inspiring (if you can forget the fact they were pirates.)
The songs are classy and clever. Melody, harmony and lyric meld brilliantly. And, considering it’s only an hour long, the narrative arc works well.
The songs are performed beautifully, by Anka Kosanović as Bonny, Gabi Lanham as Read, Ben James as Jack Rackham (Bonny’s love interest when the story begins) and Louis Chiu as Jack Bonny (Bonny’s love interest from way before the story begins). They’re supported wonderfully by the crew, played by Roya and Eli Reilly.
In this performance, the music was prerecorded and the vocals sung live. As a result, it was one of the more satisfying musical experience I’ve had – because I could actually hear all the lyrics. (Yes, I know there’s magic to a live band, but it seems SO hard to get the sound levels right.)
One challenge of the piece is, that for the majority of audiences, the world of the pirate is a literary world, an imagined world. Like the Wild West, we know a world something like this did have a historical reality – but in a pirate story we’ve come to expect something other than reality. Pirate stories are romances, in the old fashioned sense: there are wild adventures, larger than life characters, exotic settings, sudden discoveries and extraordinary coincidences. Think Treasure Island. Pirate stories have also become increasingly silly, filled with pantomime villains and absurd accents. Think Captain Hook from Peter Pan. Think Pirates of the Caribbean. Think International Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19).
The attempt to tell a truthful story in pirate world can ironically (and unjustly) seem like historical naivety.
The solution? Either ground the piece in such a gritty realism that its historical credentials are unquestionable. Or begin the piece by embracing the silly and self-referential, and then transcend it – with characters we relate to and love.
Perhaps the second of these is the best option for a musical. And currently only at an hour, there’s plenty of room for this piece to grow.
Another element of the imagined pirate world is flamboyance and vitality (think swashbuckling Errol Flynn) and this piece, in its next reincarnation, would benefit from a more confidant, bold physicality.
Regardless of my unsolicited suggestions, the production as it is now is an entertaining piece of music theatre, with serious potential.
Bonny and Read is part of ARTSLAB, a showcase of new works by Shopfront’s young resident artists.
Paul Gilchrist
Bonny and Read by Emily Whiting and Aiden Smith
at 107 Projects until March 24
Theatre Red 
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