By Barb Brouwer
Contributor
Never was there such a scurvy crew as them what sailed the Hispaniola out of Shuswap Theatre!
Meet young Jim Hawkins, Long John Silver, a hilarious squire, a beggar and a scurrilous band of buccaneers in Treasure Island, one of Shuswap Theatre’s largest productions.
New actors were added to a cast of talented familiar faces, including Diana Robinson as the comical Ben Gunn. Young Catherine Dansereau ably portrayed Jim Hawkins, present in almost every scene of the two-hour production.
Julia Body again proves her skill as director, with this classic coming-of-age tale adapted for theatre by American playwright, author, screenwriter and director Ken Ludwig.
“As a lover of the classic story, Treasure Island, it was simply a given that I would want to direct an adaptation of this beloved tale,” she writes in her director’s notes. “Pirates never cease to grab our interest no matter what our age as proven by the popularity of The Pirates of the Caribbean movies.”
Originally titled The Sea Cook: A Story For Boys, Treasure Island is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, telling a story of buccaneers and buried gold.
The novel was originally serialized in 1881 in a children’s magazine, under the title Treasure Island or the Mutiny of the Hispaniola, credited to the pseudonym Captain George North. It was first published as a book in 1883 and has since become one of the most often dramatized and adapted of all novels, in numerous media.
Stevenson is said to have conceived the idea for the novel based on a map of an imaginary, romantic island which he drew with his stepson Lloyd Osbourne, during a holiday in Braemar, Scotland, in the summer of 1881.
“If this don’t fetch the kids, why, they have gone rotten since my day,” wrote Stevenson in a letter to a friend. “Will you be surprised to learn that it is about Buccaneers, that it begins in the Admiral Benbow public house on the Devon coast, that it’s all about a map and a treasure and a mutiny and a derelict ship…It’s quite silly and horrid fun – and what I want is the best book about Buccaneers that can be had.”
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The Shuswap Theatre cast has certainly bought into that, enthusiastically bringing out their inner children to share horrid, swashbuckling fun with the audience..
This scurrilous crew make their way from the Admiral Benbow Inn to the docks of London, onto the Hispaniola, to Treasure Island and back to London in the boisterous and most nefarious way – all on one imaginative and well-decorated stage. Excellent lighting and sound effects add to the magic along with excellent period costumes.
With a “yo ho ho and a bottle of rum,” Treasure Island is a fun production for most ages.
Very young children and some others might be sensitive to the loud sword fights and gunfights that take place on the stage and up and down the side aisles. The show closes with a rousing round of Fifteen Men on a Dead Man’s Chest, sung by members of the cast and audience.
Treasure Island plays at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 9, 10 and 11 and Nov. 16, 17 and 18, and at 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 12 and 19. Thursday, Nov. 9, is pay what you can and a relaxed performance take place Sunday, Nov. 12. Tickets are available online at shiswaptheatre.com, at Salmon Arm’s Refill Store located in Lakeshore Village behind Wendy’s and Boston Pizza, or at the door.