Tonight:
5°c
Fiona Mountford's rating
, An island not to be treasured
By
Fiona Mountford
19 Dec 2007
The subtitle sounds the warning. "Parrots of the Caribbean" is the soubriquet given to this desperate piece of physical theatre, which would have Robert Louis Stevenson's timbers shivering all over the place. My memories of Treasure Island - swashbuckling piratical adventures, impenetrable nautical terminology - definitely do not include the phrase "wacky romp".
Initially, it seems that the rough-and-ready approach of adaptor/director Chris Pickles might just work. There's an onstage musician, one actor for cabin boy Jim Hawkins and just three others for everyone else. Soon, however, this disintegrates into bafflement for the audience and much donning of hopeful wigs for the performers.
I would put a considerable number of pieces of eight on the fact that no adult spectator had the slightest clue what was going on by the end.
The kids had long since become bored and fractious.
Sometimes, if applied with skill by an experienced company such as Kneehigh, this larking-about approach to texts can work wonders. Here, it is all drowning not waving, as the actors continually and unamusingly flag up the umpteen parts they are playing and the theatrical conventions they are flouting.
All this heavy-handed self-referentiality does is illustrate how uneasily Pickles's chosen approach sits with the source material and how little it comments on Stevenson's complex, fascinating themes of loyalty and betrayal.
Hopeful props quickly join the hopeful wigs: a hand-held model ship to represent the Hispaniola is all we get of the life aquatic. Long John Silver admittedly sports a nifty wooden welly boot contraption but any characterisation that Stevenson might have given him or anyone else is drowned by a flood of tired double entendres.
David Levine makes a gallant attempt to imbue Jim with the necessary wide-eyed innocence but this is an island no one could treasure.
• Until 13 January. Information: 020 7226 1916, www. kingsheadtheatre.org.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Reader views (1)
Treasure Island is a good romp of a Christmas show, appealing to both adults and children. The reviewer should understand that children's silence means they are engaged with the piece not bored by it. They loved Jim, were frightened by Pew and intrigued by the wierdness of Ben Gunn. They enjoyed the music, particularly the Pegleg Tap. The actors performed with gusto, the plot was clear if approached in a slightly irreverant and anarchic style. It is a Christmas Show to be enjoyed by the family. There was much laughter, particularly over the Star Trek and Big Brother references. The children loved the actors trying to be all nine characters on stage, and there was much disappointment over not being chosen to be the skeleton on the Island. The Parrot was a great hit with all age groups.
- Paul, London, 20/12/2007 02:15
Report abuse
