Student Name
Jeff McGrath
Theatre 1
21 March 2014
H.M.S. Pinafore & Trial By Jury The production I saw was H.M.S. Pinafore & Trial By Jury produced by the Saltshaker Theater. I viewed the play at the Bruce Ariss Wharf Theater in Monterey, California.
Act I of the first play takes place primarily on a British naval ship and deals with the daughter of the captain of the ship who rejects the attentions of the First Lord of the Admiralty because she loves a common sailor stationed on the her father’s ship. The sailor proclaims his love to the captain’s daughter, but she rejects him to for a short while, which during that time he contemplates suicide. She eventually proclaims her love to the sailor and they plan to elope.
In Act II the First Lord of the Admiralty enters and complains to the captain that his daughter had still not accepted his proposal. The captain gives him the excuse that his daughter is just hesitant because of his rank and status; therefore he should show her that love levels all ranks. The First Lord of the Admiralty explains this to her and it cements her decision to run off with the common sailor. Their plan is foiled and the captain is so furious that he curses, which causes him to be confined. When an explanation is demanded for the captain’s outburst the sailor explain it was because of he and the captain’s daughter. The First Lord of the Admiralty then has the sailor arrested as well. At this point Little Buttercup reveals a secret. She discloses that when she practiced baby-farming she took care of two children, one of high class one of low class. She confesses that she mixed the children up and that those two children were the captain and the common sailor. The First Lord of the Admiralty summons for both the men and hands over the daughter of the former captain to the new captain as he cannot marry someone of such low stature.
The second play takes place six months after the first play ends in a courtroom. The daughter is suing the new captain for a breach of promise, because he has withdrawn his promise to marry her. The daughter comes to court wearing her wedding dress and
