This fast moving, colorful, and funny non-musical one-act is adapted from Gilbert's book for the operetta with the same name by Gilbert and Sullivan. Because Sullivan's music is so delightful, Gilbert's equally delightful plot and words are often overshadowed. This is a wonderful way to guide students into an appreciation of the works of Gilbert and Sullivan with the suggestion that Sullivan's score be used for background music.

Two Venetian gondoliers, Giuseppe and Marco Palmieri, marry two pretty Venetian maidens, Tessa and Gianetta. And they live happily ever—whoa! This pleasant scene is suddenly interrupted when the Grand Inquisitor reveals that Giuseppe and Marco are not brothers after all...one of them is the long-lost heir to the throne of Barataria. But no one knows whether Giuseppe or Marco is the king. No one, that is, except the prince's former nurse Inez, who is now the wife of a pirate in a faraway land.

And there's a further complication. While Tessa and Gianetta are wondering which of them is now a queen, the Duke of Plaza-Toro reveals that his daughter was married to the young prince in infancy. This means that one of the gondoliers has two wives.

Gilbert's lively dialog, the lovable crazy characters, the hilarious plot complications—and the happy ending—all make for a happy, long-remembered play. And with brightly hued Venetian costumes against a background of gondolas gliding by on a canal (they really do—right on your stage!), this can be the most colorful play you've ever mounted.

Costumes sketches, suggestions and drawings for creating the canal and gondolas, background and historical information about the story, and much more information to help you mount a superb production are included in the Director's Script for this play. A colorful, captivating contest play for high school and college.

Other Clark adaptations: As You Like It, The Barber of Seville, Cain: a Mystery, Cyrano de Bergerac, Doctor in Spite of Himself, Importance of Being Earnest, Macbeth, Marriage of Figaro, The Pot Boiler, School for Husbands, She Stoops to Conquer