Review - Treasure Island - People's Theatre

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson 
Adapted by Bryony Lavery 
People's Theatre.
13th September 2018.  

The People's Theatre production of Treasure Island gets off to a good start with the audience serenaded, if that's the right word, into the theatre by a pirate playing a concertina.

The single set is extremely well-designed serving as a ship using lots of pallets to create an authentic feeling ship, as well as the Admiral Benbow Inn, the stockade, the island and all the other various locations required by the story. The lighting is used effectively for the intimate one- and two-hander scenes.

The costumes are excellent, evoking the buccaneering 1880s superbly.

Robert Louis Stevenson's classic story was adapted by Bryony Lavery and premiered at the National Theatre in 2014. It's billed as 'sharp and imaginative’ and aims to redress the gender balance by casting many of the main roles as women.

This is an excellent idea, however, it brings with it several challenges.

The story is narrated by the main character, not Jim Hawkins but Jemima. There is initial confusion among the characters - and the audience – over whether she is actually a girl or a boy, which is exacerbated further because she is called Jim throughout the play, not Jem. 

Dr. Livesey is played by a woman and the majority of the crew are cast as women, too.

The Inn is run by Jim/Jem and her grandmother. In the original it was Jim and his mother; Jim’s father having died just a few days earlier. No point is served by changing the mother to a grandmother and this is another problem with the play. 

If you're going to make changes, they ought to have a purpose. All the female characters simply act as men. No real concession is given to their femininity, and neither does the fact that they are women have any impact on the story.

So what's the point?

There were several fight scenes, though interesting needed a bit more work to look convincing. This added a degree of comical almost pantomime element to the show, it did feel extremely childish in places, though some of the humour occasionally worked. The musical elements were quite well performed and enjoyable though.    

The other jarring anomaly is casting Ben Gunn as what seems like a ten-year old cabin boy. He was an adult and a member of Flint's crew and plays an important part in frightening the pirates with a ghostly voice although the voice we heard was definitely not that of the cabin boy.

Finally, there was an interesting cast including Fiona Davison doing a good impression of Flint the parrot. Long John Silver, played by a man (Paul Gaitskill), was definitely one of the stronger characters, his acting was very good. It was disappointing to see him played as a pirate with a 'gammy leg', even though it may have been false, rather than a peg. That defeats Billy Bone's initial instruction to Jim/Jem to keep watch for a one-legged man.

The actors did a fair job with a poor script although many would benefit from better projection.

The People's Theatre is a superb concept. Run by volunteers it produces a play every month which is a demanding undertaking. The members are enthusiastic and hard-working and deserve all our support.

It may be difficult finding a good play to produce every month but that's the stall they set out for themselves and while credit must be given for their many excellent accomplishments, such as the locally produced and written Heaton for example, Treasure Island cannot be rated as one of them. 

The last show is on Saturday 15^th September at 7pm. 

Frank Cromartie Murphy & Ian Waugh