Given the obvious opportunity among the peg legs, neckerchiefs and cutlasses, the absence of a parrot was passing strange.

A stiff example with beautiful plummage, such as a Norwegian Blue that had rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisibule, would have been ideal.

This new production of Gilbert and Sullivan's silly satirical tale of swashbuckling, dutifulness, parental absence and the unhappy lot of the constabulary, by Martin Lloyd-Evans for Scottish Opera and the D'Oyly Carte Company, pilfers shamelessly from the catalogue of familiar gags from Monty Python's Flying Circus in a blatant, and blatantly successful, attempt to connect with a modern audience.

Terry Gilliam-style cut-outs animate the stage. Sergeant of Police Graeme Broadbent has clearly done a tour of duty in Whitehall at John Cleese's Ministry of Silly Walks. Major-General Stanley's many daughters echo the semaphore version of Wuthering Heights while waving little Union flags.

Lloyd-Evans, who last worked for Scottish Opera on one of the "Essential" semi-staged four-singer tours of opera highlights, plunders other corners of popular culture – television's Big Bang Theory and cinema's The Full Monty among them – in a knowing revision of the G&S oeuvre which is far from Cornwall in its vast selection of accents. Pirate King Steven Page is a little Alfred Doolittle. The police squad are all from Oop North, and Page's Lieutenant, a fine performance from Scottish Opera Emerging Artist Andrew McTaggart, is broad Glasgow, and suitably wide.

Designer Jamie Vartan and choreographer Steve Elias deserve a generous share of the praise for the production's success. It looks stylish, behind its false pros arch, but at the same time I can think of few productions where so many of the laughs come from the stage environment.

The opening of Act Two, when the girls all crowd buxomly into the chapel sanctuary of their repentant father as he scourges himself for lying to the Pirates about his orphan status, had the whole theatre chuckling. Minutes later Broadbent's camp coppers are using the surrounding gravestones as riot shields against the aggrieved seamen.

Arthur Sullivan was, of course, adept at setting even necessary exposition melodiously, and WS Gilbert at supplying outrageous rhymes to keep the information bowling along. This production recognises the work's parody of grand opera at every opportunity, and never lets the opportunity for slapstick to pass by.

What has dated is the satirical approach to the moral debate about duty and honesty around which the plot revolves, but that is served whole with wide-eyed clarity – this staging may be knowing, but it is never cynical. The altogether odd Hail Poetry hymn is delivered straight.

Musically, it has its rough edges. The orchestra, under Derek Clark, was crisp and bright and the central couple, Stephanie Corley's Mabel and Nicholas Sharratt as Frederic, pitched their performances perfectly. Richard Suart's Major General was a little at sea in his introductory patter song, but Broadbent and his officers did their constabulary duty as well as it should be done.

Even if G&S is not to your taste, you may find much of this Pirates arresting.

For tour details, see www.scottishopera.org