A treasure hunt with female pirates! Drawing on traditional and contemporary features of childhood adventure stories, the National Theatre recently livestreamed their production of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel Treasure Island. Yet despite its oft-ludicrous sprinklings of humour, this production is far from a kids pantomime.
Playwright Bryony Lavery has moulded this story for boys in to a stage adaptation accessible to all, regardless of gender or age. Patsy Ferran’s casting as Jim Hawkins, or should I say ‘Jemima’, will satisfy the feminist in us all. A touchingly modern twist accompanied by the casting of Helena Lymbery as the assertive Dr. Livisey, alongside an ample number of bloodthirsty female pirates. Nevertheless, despite my elation at such a breadth of colourful female characters, gender is, and rightly so, insignificant to the sentiment of the play. In each of us, aged one to one-hundred, lies a spirit of adventure.Treasure Island is sure to re-kindle the inner explorer in us all and transport its audience back in to the pages of childhood fiction.
Despite its high level of action, the most striking elements of Treasure Island are a marked darkness alongside an unpicking of morality. The stage adaptation scratches beneath the surface and hits at contemporary moral dilemmas as the pirates pursue material wealth, illustrated perfectly by the castaway cabin-boy Ben Dunn’s proclamation that treasure is “cold hearted and dangerous”. Moral ambiguity drives Jim’s adventure both on the Hispaniola ship and on the island itself. As such this production acts as a guide to younger viewers, and a sharp reminder to their elders as the audience are thrown head-first in to the messy spectrum of human trust and loyalty.
Thankfully the performance provides the right degree of droll humour to engage its young target audience. These proscribed moments of ease (think giant jellyfish and a clumsy member of the pirate crew) provide the audience with some much-needed breathers. Yet dually the play throws its viewers in to a masked analysis of relationships, most notably in the case of Jim and his superior Long John Silver. Furthermore the set is nothing short of enchanting; the stage looking and functioning like an eighteenth-century ship. This allows for a smooth transition between scenes as the pirates are physically hauling the set in to new arrangements.
The National Theatre’s adaptation of Treasure Island is a dark and thought-provoking performance that beautifully combines a nostalgic childhood yearning for adventure with sober moral sentiments.
Laura Clements
Image: National Theatre