Pirate Drama

If you’re a history channel aficionado, you have watched at least one, if not several specials about what pirates were really like.  Pirates were not the romantic swashbucklers portrayed in the movies.  Apparently, they were similar to other ship crews of that era.  They were more concerned with fighting scurvy and boredom than making fashion statements by wearing eye patches (unless they lost an eye), parrots on their shoulders and the iconic tri-cornered hat.  The song, “Sixteen Men on a Dead Man’s Chest,” wasn’t sung by pirates or anybody until Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Treasure Island.   So “real” pirates weren’t as cool as movie pirates. 

During Pirate Week at Doublecreek, guess which version we went with?  If you said movie pirates, you chose wisely.  Let’s face it – movie pirates are more fun!  All things being equal, we go with fun here at Doublecreek.  This is typified by our skit this week.  I’ll try to summarize this masterpiece in a few lines.  Here goes:

Princess Buttercup’s brother and his sidekick are kidnapped by the nasty pirate captain, Soggy Bottoms, and his first mate and only crew member, Mattie Dead Locks.  In desperation, Princess Buttercup and her lovely entourage of one, recruit a group of pirates who don’t do anything (our apologies to Veggie Tales) to save her beloved brother.  Except for the fact these pirates are cowards and lazy, they’re the perfect choice.  After several close calls and high drama (and low humor), the pirates who don’t do anything save the day!  Like most pirate movies I’ve seen, only a happy ending will do!

To appreciate the attention to detail, we employed when writing our opus, all you have to do is read the script.  We use precise naval terms, like starboard and port in the stage directions.  In the end, we had fun with Pirate Week!  I truly believe Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins would be proud!

-- Joe Ray