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about

THE BALLAD OF BONNET
in which is told how Major Stede Bonnet, learned gentleman of Barbados, unexpectedly turned pirate.
Featuring Amber Gray, Eliza Poehlman, Nicole Weiss, Rick Burkhardt, and Company.

lyrics

Lyrics:

SIRENS:
Listen to this tale, little boys,
I’ll tell you what the sea knows,
Of this man, the Gentleman Pirate
And the way that fate goes.
Major Bonnet was a man of letters and upstanding reputation.
He let his yearning for the sea usurp his good education.
Oh…
Yo ho-ho, yo ho-ho, yo ho-ho, oh…

BONNET:
Have I never told you of Edward Teach? — who just last week scuttled a sloop of forty men for a hundred barrels of wine? — At the harbor they call him Blackbeard — they say he carries six flint-locks on his chest, and when he goes into battle, he ties lit fuses to his locks, as he bears down upon his enemies like a fury from hell! — Are you cold? You’re shivering.

THE DOCTOR:
First shivering fits
Then fever violent,
A loss of strength
And spirit silent.
Dejection of mind,
Insatiable thirst —
He’s vomiting bile,
The boy is cursed.

MARY ALLAMBY BONNET:
Dear Bonnet, my husband
Your duty to this house and to this family’s no formality.

We are lighting candles through the night.
Don’t leap past hope unto bereavement
Show the strength befits a father
Command he trust the physic’s treatment.

BONNET:
...it’s on New Providence where Blackbeard keeps his loot in a secret hideaway guarded by buccaneer sentries. A pirate utopia — Have I told you about the pirates in Madagascar?

SIRENS:
Yo ho-ho, yo ho-ho, yo ho-ho, oh…

THE DOCTOR:
Attended with pains
From foot to head
A fearful prognostic,
His eyes are red —
A redness becoming
Quite yellow in tone
Until the patient
Is cold as stone.

MARY ALLAMBY:
We’re lighting candles through the night.
But all you do is tell him stories.
Fever’s worsening, still you weave
Your frivolous tales of pirate glories.

BONNET:
We’ll get a boat, you and I — I know just the one.

THE SIRENS:
Major Bonnet dreamed of adventure
Fast and fierce the pirate’s life.

MEN:
Yo ho-ho, yo ho-ho, yo ho-ho, oh…

BONNET:
We’ll call the boat The Liberty and lift anchor on Bridgetown. Take any ship in our path. Like Blackbeard but better… When you get better — Can you hear them? If you listen close - you can hear the sailors on the night watch, singing to stay awake. It’s a lullaby, lad. They’re singing you to sleep.

THE DOCTOR:
Not so close, please, to the mattress.
Bleeding the patient is common practice.
Without this or some treatment much like it
The patient dies within three days.

MARY ALLAMBY:
Dear Bonnet, my husband
Your duty to this house and to this family’s not some fantasy!

credits

from HAIL OBLIVION, released April 9, 2017
Performed by the Sirens (Amber Gray, Eliza Poehlman, Nicole Weiss), Bonnet (Rick Burkhardt), and Company

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Johnstone/Gelb New York, New York

HAIL OBLIVION is the latest work by Gelb and Johnstone, whose music theater projects include Tully (In No Particular Order), last seen at NYMF, and the rock musical Sometimes in Prague, which was featured in American Theater Magazine as part of the Polyphone Festival, after previous development at the Tank, Joe's Pub, and the New Ohio Ice Factory. ... more

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