The Crew
Anne Bonny from Resurrection the stage musical, The Buccaneers Legend
Anne Bonny
Anne Bonny was born in Ireland in around 1697 to the mistress of her father. Her father’s wife soon died, and he took Anne and her mother to start a new life in America. Anne was regarded as rebellious from an early age and would often dress as a man which enabled her to get away with certain things she could never hope to do as a woman. Although she was a loose cannon, it didn’t stop her suffering her own share of abuse, especially by James Bonny, her husband. Fleeing the relationship she fell in love with John Rackham a recently pardoned pirate and it wasn’t long before he took up his old ways of piracy again taking Anne and her friend Mary Read along with him. Their time as pirates only lasted for 2 years when they were finally captured. At her trial Anne “pleaded the belly”. Execution was postponed due to her condition but then the trail of her life goes cold. There are no records of her execution, and it is widely believed she was released and lived out the rest of her natural life.
Jack Calico from Resurrection the stage musical, The Buccaneers Legend
John Rackham (Jack Calico)
John Rackham was born in 1682 in England but very little is known of his early life. The first mention of him was as a crew member on Captain Vane’s pirate ship. Rackham overthrew Vane and became captain, but they were soon captured but Rackham pleaded that they were pirates because Vane had forced them to be. Governor Rogers granted them the Kings pardon and Rackham was a free man in Nassau. Records indicate it was around this time that he met with Anne Bonny and not long after he returned to piracy. Rackham was known for his flamboyant dress sense which gained him the nickname, Calico Jack. Rackham and his crew were known to prey on small ships, especially fishing boats around the coasts of the Bahamas. He was captured and hanged in 1720 in Jamaica at Port Royal, which today is known as Rackhams Cay.
Mary Read from Resurrection the stage musical, The Buccaneers Legend
Mary Read
Mary’s mother gave birth to a son but her husband soon after was lost at sea. Her husband’s mother who was of fair means sent money for the upkeep of the boy. Mary’s mother then fell pregnant by another man and went to the country to have the child. That was in 1685 and the baby was Mary Read. It was when her infant son died and to ensure the finance kept coming from her mother-in-law she made Mary dress as a boy and passed her off as her son. Mary continued to dress as a man as she grew up and as an adult being a “man” enabled her to gain passage on various ships as a crew member. She called herself Mark Read when disguised as a man and whilst in Nassau she was attracted to a young man called Andy Cormac, a crew member of John Rackham. Andy Cormac revealed to Mary that she was actually a woman called Anne Bonny; Mary then revealed her true self. The pair became close friends and she joined Rackhams crew only to be captured along with everybody else in 1720. Mary also pleaded the belly, and her execution was stayed, but she lost the baby and died soon after of fever.
Angus Jock McTavish from Resurrection the stage musical, The Buccaneers Legend
Angus "Jock" McTavish
Where Anne Bonny, Mary Read and John Rackham were actual people, McTavish is fictitious, but he is based on several pirates including John Gow. In the book and stage play Resurrection, McTavish states that it was he who killed the notorious pirate, Edward Teach otherwise known as Blackbeard. It is described in several texts that the person who killed Blackbeard was a “Highlander”! so it was apt to have McTavish as that assassin. When Rackhams crew were captured his ship was at anchor and many of the crew were ashore, some of which went into hiding when they were hunted down. It is feasible therefore, that McTavish was one of the few who actually escaped. In the circumstances he would have had to keep a low profile and in the story, he manages to get back to Scotland and join the Jacobite rebellion. He was killed by a British Marine as he accompanied Bonny Prince Charlie to the Isle of Skye to escape the famous battle of Culloden.
Cat Elliott - MD
Meet our Musical Director, Cat Elliott. According to reliable sources (one being her long suffering mum) Cat began making a lot of noise at a very early age. However she probably really only made any remotely tuneful sounds when she began singing along to classic musicals such as "Annie" at around the age of 8. Sensing a latent talent, her parents encouraged her to play piano. She took to music like a hippo to a cool, muddy pool, but the formal lessons were short lived. The theory of music was simply unfathomable.
Discovering another passion for travel & adventure, a very curious Cat flew the nest at 16 and embarked upon an unconventional life, moving from place to place, living in all manner of unusual abodes and meeting all manner of eccentric folk. Sort of like a peaceful land Pirate. During this period she absorbed many life lessons, and when she began clumsily to learn guitar, it was really as a means to an end. The creativity, the songs, were bubbling beneath the surface. Cat has come a long way since those first few unexpected songs burst messily out. She re-discovered the piano (literally - it had been in storage gathering dust for years) and re-taught herself to play and compose, adding classical pieces to her catalogue of original material.
Fast forward a few years and Cat has hung a "Producer" hat next to all the others she enjoys wearing. She loves the contrast between the raw energy of playing live and the controlled process of making records in a studio. With various self produced singles to her name, she is now embarking on her first self produced album, and plans to tour in 2024. Somehow though, she still has time to be kidnapped by the Pirates of A.M.A. Theatre Co., and commandeered at pistol point to re-create the music for their travelling show! She doesn't mind though, after all, “variety is the spice life.”