Ocracoke continues to celebrate the golden age of piracy.
While Ocracoke Alive has put Julie Howard’s musical play “A Tale of Blackbeard” on hiatus, islanders and visitors will still be able to get their summer Blackbeard fix in a new revue at the Deepwater Theater.
The show “Blackbeard, an Historical, Hysterical Account,” is a mash-up of history and myth, and will be on the boards Mondays at 7:30 p.m. now (begun June 6) to Aug. 24, (except July 4), said performer David Tweedie.
“It will be like a family-friendly Monty Python meets Blackbeard history,” said Tweedie, who also is the fiddler for island contemporary folk band Molasses Creek.
“It’s a story of what we do know about Blackbeard versus the myths,” said Desiree Christa Ricker, co-writer of the show and Ocracoke Alive’s assistant executive director.
She is enjoying researching the history and dispelling myths.
“Once the facts are discovered, it’s just as exciting as the fiction,” she said.
While few facts are truly known about Blackbeard’s life, the two are using research by North Carolina historian Kevin Duffus, who has written extensively on Blackbeard.
“It will be part song-and-dance, limericks, silly commercials and game show,” Tweedie said.
The group expects to run this revue again next year and revive “A Tale of Blackbeard” in 2018, which will be the year of the 300th anniversary of Blackbeard’s demise here off Springer’s Point Nov. 22, 1718.
“The Blackbeard play is wonderful, but it requires a lot of momentum from a lot of cast members,” Tweedie said about the play that was revived in 2014 and 2015 after a 20-year hiatus. “We needed to take a break for a year or two.”
In addition to Tweedie and Ricker, cast members include Peyton Piquard and Gary Mitchell.
Tickets are $15 for adults, $5 for kids, and are available at the door, by calling 252-921-0260, or online at www.ocracokealive.org.
A percentage of tickets sales from Deepwater Theater shows support Ocracoke Alive’s student and community programming throughout the year.
Editor’s note: Other Blackbeard activities include Teach’s Hole Blackbeard Exhibit and Blackbeard’s Pirate Jamboree Oct. 28 to 30.
This was so fun. It was “hysterical”, I mean historical!
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