Richard Byrum and Don Dagenais present The High Jinx of Pirates: Playing Out Spoof and Social Comment on Monday, April 13, at 7 p.m. in the Truman Forum at the Plaza Branch, 4801 Main St.

Byrum and Dagenais will examine the historical background of Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas and how they fit within Victorian society. Byrum and Dagenais are both Kansas City Lyric Opera Guild volunteer speakers.

This program is being held in conjunction with Lyric Opera of Kansas City's production of The Pirates of Penzance.

The Pirates of Penzance tells the story of a young pirate apprentice named Frederic who has come to the end of his indentured period. As it turns out, Frederic was indentured by mistake. His half-deaf nurse had been instructed to apprentice him to a "pilot" but got it a little wrong. At any rate, Frederic has decided to leave the pirate life forever and, though he loves his comrades dearly, devote his life to the extermination of their kind. However, since he is until the stroke of midnight still one of them, he feels obliged to point out the pirates' weakness—they are too softhearted. Apparently, all a captive must do is plead to being an orphan and he is immediately released.