Happy Dan Pew

First preview tonight, and god only knows where backstage we're gonna fit that damn octopus (its huge!), not to mention the porticullus, which is used for only one scene, and is about the size of Rhode Island...

Cool stuff, indeed. Interesting, too, to learn where the history and fiction intersect--the clothes, the one-legged ship's cooks. Dag, I guess its time to re-read the damned thing! :)

Have you read William Burroughs' Cities of the Red Night? Boo-tay lovin pirates all over that one (all pirates love booty, but only a select few will cop to loving boo-tay! Boy boo-tay, anyway...)

Oh, yes--that one's a goody--although some might take issue with the whole debunk-the-fun-stuff agenda. But that's what historians do I guess, and I get the impression that for all of his nay-saying, Mr. Cordingly is just as enamoured of the fictions of piracy as any of us. That encyclopedia rules, as well--it does have some gaps, and a couple mistakes here and there, but its a great starting-point for all kinds of research, and comes in quite handy for figuring out what part of the world is being referred to when archaic place names are used (Calicutt??)

Yum! Its great overall, but I really like the coloring!

I will do that very thing! Just got out of two days of 12-hour tech rehersals--here at the old day job. Wish I was shovin' off for Cartegena or Tortuga right now, 'stead of sittin' here in front o' this blasted difference engine...

Aye, I've been meanin't ask--wot's the policy on cannibalism around these parts? Nothin' I like more than a nice, fresh, still-beatin' heart, right outta the chest.

Is there a plot? Is there ever! One might even say there are several. Let's see how succinct I can be... Captain Ben Avery, RN, is charged with delivering a fantastic jewel encrusted crown to the King of Madagascar. The ship he is sailing on is captured by the Brotherhood of the Coast, out to save their comrade, Sheba the She-Wolf from being transported as a slave (Sheba is captured in the fort raid the opens the story). The Brotherhood divides the crown into six pieces, for the six captains to sell. They also kidnap Avery's beloved, Lady Vanity, for sale in the Basra slave marts by corsair captain Akbar the Damned. Avery, assisted (and sometimes hindered) by anti-hero Thomas Blood, must regain the pieces of the crown, rescue Lady Vanity, defeat the Coast Brotherhood, and give general what-for to the forces of the evil Spanish Viceroy Don Lardo del Baloona de Lobby y Corridor. That's it in a very small nutshell. The whole thing is pretty packed with incident. Not to mention plenty of killer fights, ship battles, swinging on ropes, beautiful women, giant octopuses, marooning; you name it. Then, there's all the stuff we had to leave out--the Lost City, a retired Anne Bonny, the dreaded maguay plant. I really can't reccomend the novel the play is based on enough. Its a satire, and packed with utterly ridiculous anachronisms, but its meticuloulsly researched, and carries the spirit of the words of Sabatini. Even if you can't see the play, do youself a favor and read the book, damn me deadlights!

I believe that would be Roman Polanski's Pirates--great movie--Walter Matthau as Captain Red, and his cabin boy, Frog! And, let's not forget The Crimson Permenant Assurance--the short that opens Monty Python's Meaning of Life

I'm no expert on Ms Bonny, but as far as I know, she pretty much disappeared from the records of the time after giving the hangman the slip. But it sounds like a swell book, all the same--I'll keep an eye peeled for it. I love the stores of Bonny and Read. Let us all take a moment to remember the immortal words of Adam Ant: Oh a woman can be captain and a woman can be chief; just like the glorius Amazons, Anne Bonny, Mary Read :) And yay, POTC. I think all the pirate love was there before, but Johnny and Co made it ok for the man on the street to say so. And, you can get t-shirts with flags and such on 'em more places, too!

Avast, me buckos! Me theatre company is opening an adaptation of George MacDonald Fraser's grand and epic novel The Pyrates on Sunday, June 27, 2004, at the Chopin Theatre in Chicago, IL. Here's the webpage for the show, with all the particulars, if ye be wishin' to attend. I'm quite excited about this show--I'm the co-adaptor, and I'm playing the role of Happy Dan Pew in the show. Its a project I've been tryin' to get off the ground for a number of years now, and it warms me black and vile heart to see it come to fruition at last, with Mr. Fraser's blessin' and be damned! To boot, the whole mess has led me to such fine dark corners of the web as this here board. Although I've loved all things pyratical since I was just a sprat, I hadn't spent much time chartin' the web for fellow sea bandits, corsairs, and privateers. Here's to new friends and rum for all, wi' a curse! So, if ye be near Chicago this summer, come on out and I'll dedicate one of me froggy rigadoons to ye. Die merrily, die all!