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Long John Silver and his band of buccaneers. Pictures: Pete Le May Treasure Island
Birmingham Rep
**** “Ooh Arr Jim lad”, as Robert Newton might
have said, “Avast and belay, what have the landlubbin’ blaggards done to
‘ee, matey!”. Robert Newton, of course being the real-life
incarnation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Long John Silver to anyone old
enough for a free bus pass. And whether his Long John would have taken to Jim
lad as Jim lass we will never know but Birmingham Rep’s revival of the
classic boy’s own adventure yarn has been given a new twist by writer
Bryony Lavery, who sees it as merely showing girls can have adventures
just as much as boys. Thus Jim Hawkins is a rebellious teenage girl,
still called Jim of course – let’s not get too adventurous - whose
hackles rise at comments such as ‘maps are for men’. Not that Jim’s gender makes any difference to the
plot of what is a r Perhaps necessary when Silver’s Parrot, also
Captain Flint, a puppet, is a useful agent of persuasion due to his
penchant for pecking out human eyeballs and eating them. A gruesome
trait much enjoyed by many a small boy in the audience. Many a
psychopathic parrot could now be added to list for Santa.
Also in the Treasure Island gender exchange
programme is Dr Livesey, played by Siȃn Howard, and let’s be honest,
without a little tinkering, Treasure Island really is a boy’s own
adventure, boys only in fact, so a sex change doctor adds another female
to the treasure hunt while Kaitlin Howard adds a little femininity –
little being very much the operative word – as Joan the Goat with the
chrome dome skull after the top of her head went missing. Not that a
petticoat pirate would have been a shock even when the book was first
serialised in 1881. Female pirates are well documented and were nothing
new. Silver is played by Michael Hodgson who has a
nice line in unadulterated evil and contempt. He is a man with
questionable loyalty . . . let’s not beat about the bush, he has no
loyalty. He is selfish, sly, greedy, deceitful and is not even on
nodding terms with the truth. Logic says he is the villain but somehow,
at least in the book, we all have a sneaky liking for him, perhaps the
original lovable rogue. He is certainly the most complex character in
the book where he shows a genuine liking and affection for Jim Hawkins,
which, somehow, did not sit right when Silver took a more, should we
say, carnal interest in this new look Jim. In Treasure Island sex is what the gold is
carried in. Here Silver is perhaps short on the more
endearing qualities, more violent and less dangerous than we expect. The
charm, false as a nine bob note be it may, is missing so he is less
likeable as a result. Silver’s motley crew from Flint’s old ship, the
Walrus, give us Badger, Pete Ashmore, who is a would-be leader except he
complained he was always last to be picked, Dick the Dandy, played by Ru
Hamilton, with his bespoke collection of knives for dismembering each
part of the body and Israel Hands, who appears to be a South American
sociopath played by Nicholas Prasad. Then there was Black Dog, played by
Dan Poole, who seemed to use the same face tattooist as Queequeg in Moby
Dick. But we open with the evil Billy Bones, played by
Dave Fishley, with his mysterious sea chest. His fight (fight director
Renny Krupinski) with Black Dog was one of the most dramatic and
convincing I have ever seen on stage. John Wayne would have been proud .
. . and would probably have joined in. Then there is Blind Pew, a nasty
apparition and giver of the dreaded black spot, played by Andrew
Langtree, with all three giving a frightening warning of a one legged
man, giving J When Billy Bones shuffled off his mortal coil
Fishley became . . . Grey I think it was, who was . . . well he was in
it, I think. It was a lovely, funny performance from him. Without a
programme you would never know it was the same actor. And for dual roles Thomas Pickles steals the show
as first Barney Bright Eyes, who falls foul of the parrot, and then
Treasure Island’s resident person of diminished sanity as PC would
probably have it, Ben Gunn, mad as a hatter, or in his case, a pair of
hatters, Ben and . . . Ben.
And sort of with a dual role is Greg Coulson as
Lucky Micky who switches sides from the goodies to the baddies, i.e. the
pirates, only to discover lucky can be a relative term. With the secret of Bones’ chest discovered, the
treasure map, Squire Trelawney sets about buying a boat and finding the
treasure, being conned into hiring a crew of pirates by Silver. The Squire is the local dignitary, upper class
twit and pompous plonker, and is played with a flamboyant air of
superiority and stupidity, with a dressing of cowardice, by Tonderai
Munyeu. So leaving behind Grandma Hawkins, played by Anni
Domingo, and Mrs Crossley, Suzanne Nixon, with her noisy hen, the
intrepid band set out under the command of Captain Smollett, a season
seafarer played by Langtree again whose career as Pew was cut short, as
was his throat. The script keeps well to the original tale,
except Stevenson had Silver surviving and escaping with a bag of silver.
The party reach the island where mutiny ensues and the squire’s party
and pirates battle it out for the treasure, good against evil. It is a fast-paced adventure, directed with a
hint of fun by Phillip Breen, with enough gore to keep small boys happy
and a female hero for the girls, all helped by a cracking set from Mark
Bailey with sails, a ship rising from the stage and very simple yet
clever tricks to produce a seemingly bottomless trunk and a doctor’s bag
Jim can climb into. The modern trend of having actors double up as
the band on stage was also in evidence and is a nice touch. It all helps with the Rep’s huge stage, which
gives us an inn, the island and the fully rigged ship all lit
beautifully by Tina MacHugh. At three hours long, it can be a little
wordy at times so is perhaps not the Christmas fare for younger
children, the Rep suggest seven plus. The opening pace is a little slow
to set the scene but once set it is a rollicking yarn for all the
family. To 07-01-17 Roger Clarke 29-11-16
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ollicking,
spiffing yarn of bloodthirsty pirates, mutiny, treasure maps and Cap’n
Flint’s gold. Sarah Midleton gives us a likeable Jim, who narrates the
adventure, and throws in a few witty asides to lighten the action and
show this is all a little tongue in cheek.
im
nightmares.