That greatest challenge in the theatre. How to capture and retain the attention of a ten-year-old child.
The Orange Tree Theatre just about manages this with its reimagined version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic Tresure Island.
The word “reimagined” should serve as a warning to traditionalists – this is not the show for them.
The choice of Hannah Khalil to do the “reimagining” just about says it all. Is CEO Tom Littler trying to turn OTT woke?
Hannah as you may recall was the writer who decided to rewrite Shakespeare’s Henry VIII because the women’s parts weren’t big enough.
Treasure Island at Orange Tree Theatre (Picture: Steve Gregson)
So, it is no surprise that in this Treasure Island Long John Silver is accompanied by his pirate wife and her best friend who somehow become the main characters. Anne Bonny played by a menacing Kaci Kerwick, and Mary Read, the excellent Katie Rough.
We are lectured – “just because we weren’t written about doesn’t mean we didn’t exist.” And it is true Bonny and Read were real life pirates, though Anne was of course married to James Bonny not Long John Silver. This is just a convenient way for Khalil to shoehorn these two in.
Indeed, apart from Silver and the cabin boy Jim (an ingenu Apple Rozas-Lipman), most of the characters in the original novel are also played by women. Though Japhia Papo Marfo’s considerable stature as Silver dominates the stage.
Tanya Kovatchka narrates, while Avanie Zarine is Dr Livesey, Emily Ash Captain Smollett, Nadia Sweeney Billy Bones, and Rosie Glynn captures the cheese-loving Ben Gunn.
Treasure Island at Orange Tree Theatre (Picture: Steve Gregson)
This is certainly the show for little girls aspiring to being a pirate. It’s fifteen (wo)men on a dead man’s chest.
The Director, also a woman of course, Natasha Rickman doesn’t coax subtlety from her performers. But then maybe all the thigh slapping and shouting keeps the kids awake.
For them, and indeed for any adults at risk of dosing off, it is fortunate that the strength of the original writing shines through Khalil’s overlay. There is lots of rollicking good fun and sea shanties.
For tickets go to https://orangetreetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/treasure-island/
Pictured top: Treasure Island at Orange Tree Theatre (Picture: Steve Gregson)