31^st Festival Season - 2009

H.M.S. Pinafore or The Lass That Loved A Sailor

Music by: Arthur Sullivan

Book & Lyrics by: W. S. Gilbert

High spirits prevail aboard the H.M.S. Pinafore as bumboat woman Little Buttercup distributes sweets and tobacco to the crew. Seaman Ralph Rackstraw’s mind, however, is on Josephine, the daughter of their Captain Corcoran. He is in love with her even though she is socially unattainable. Unaware of his affection, Josephine is in love with Ralph, but pride prevents her from revealing this because of his low station. Josephine, meanwhile, is sought in marriage by Sir Joseph Porter, First Lord of the Admiralty, whose advances she refuses to acknowledge. Sir Joseph holds strong views about the treatment of sailors – he maintains that a British sailor is any man’s equal (excepting his own) and should always be treated with politeness, without recourse to bad language or abuse. This inspires Ralph to declare his love to Josephine, who soon forgets her pride and confesses her true feelings to him. Plans are quickly made to smuggle the couple ashore that night to be married.

The only crewmember who is not happy at the news is Dick Deadeye. He betrays their intentions to the Captain and they are caught before they can leave the ship. Furious at Ralph’s actions, the Captain loses his cool and utters a swear word that is, unfortunately, overheard by Sir Joseph. He is appalled at such an outburst and turns to Ralph for an explanation. Unfortunately, Ralph only makes matters worse by revealing that he is in love with Josephine. The situation is only saved by Little Buttercup, who intervenes to confess how, in her youth, she had fostered two babies from opposite ends of the social ladder. In the course of caring for them, she had mixed them up. The baby from the poor background was really Captain Corcoran; that from the upper crust was Ralph. Upon hearing this, Sir Joseph immediately loses all interest in Josephine and gladly resigns her to Ralph, now Captain Rackstraw.