'Pirates!' is a bi-national co-commission which Charles Way wrote for theatres in the London and the Washington, DC, suburbs. The protagonist Jim is an eight-year-old who is fascinated by 18th-century pirate lore. He is also on the brink of being reunited with the mother who left him and his father four years earlier for a life on the road with a new partner. As he struggles to come to terms with whether or not he wants to renew this relationship, Jim dreams that he is caught in an adventure on the high.