The Pirates of Pasty Bay

Year of production

2009 & 2010

Location

Chester, Cirencester, Lincoln, Reading, Leicester, Salisbury, Solihull & Worthing

Client

The West Cornwall Pasty Company

A Pirates Life for Me!

During 2009 and 2010 a motley band of seafaring scurvy-ridden pirates marauded around various cities in the UK as part of a promotional campaign to raise brand awareness for The West Cornwall Pasty Company.

Commissioned as a special project from AtmosFEAR! street theatre, the tawdry trio are based on two characters from pirate history, matched with a generic crew member. Captain Henry Killigrew, thinks he is in charge of their quest for the illusive ‘golden pasty’, but in reality his bawdy wench wife Lady Mary Killigrew seems to be bossing them all around! Making up the trio is Skull Duggery the bungling boatswain. During some performances a female boatswain named Polly Rogers replaced Skull Duggery, and on two occasions an interactive parrot puppet named Jim Rummy also featured.

Together the pirates have left their fine sea vessel The Penzance Pearl in Pasty Bay, Cornwall, and are scouring the country in their eternal quest to find an ancient treasure, in the form of a pasty which never reduces in size no matter how much is consumed!

The characters were bespoke creations by AtmosFEAR! imagineering and costumed in-house by Maggie Murray. The performance was written and directed by Creative Producer Jason Karl and Producers Gary Oke and Monica Vaness. Three separate skits were developed including a comedy introduction, a ’swear-in’ (not swearing!) of new ship mates and a pirate ‘pasty dance’, with lots of opportunity for audience interaction.

The Pirates of Pasty Bay have performed in Chester, Cirencester, Reading, Leicester, Salisbury, Solihull, Worthing and Lincoln and have been featured in several newspapers and on ITV local news. They have appeared on more than one occasion in several venues.