TREASURE ISLAND by Mike Kenny. Everyman, Liverpool. To 26 January.

Liverpool

TREASURE ISLAND
by Mike Kenny

Everyman Theatre, Liverpool To 26 January 2002
Runs 2hr 25min One interval

TICKETS 0151 709 4776
Review Timothy Ramsden 1 December

Go Everyman this Christmas. You'll glide along the narrative irreverence (and irrelevance). You'll dance to the belted-out hits. You'll teach a parrot to speak.Rock 'n' roll panto has been established at the Everyman for a couple of decades. But this year's show goes further. As the audience helpfully push and pull imaginary oars to help move the pirate dinghy across the stage seas, Liverpool comes up with Britain's first ever rock 'n' row Christmas show.

Experienced young person's playwright Mike Kenny is cavalier with the niceties of Stevenson's story. Long John Silver, played by David Tysall with a mixture of snarls and smiles, according to whether he wants the crowd to hiss or assist in the action, is seen off with his inept duo of piratical sidekicks by a torrent of foam rocks chucked at them from the audience. It certainly satisfies the Trade Descriptions Act for rock 'n' roll panto. And for a critic, the chance to throw a literal stone or two at the cast is too good to resist.

Apparently Stevenson began his novel in a pub called 'The Admiral Benbow'. That's become 'The Grievous Bodily Arms' (think about it – but not for long). It's managed by Jim Hawkins' Aunt Beryl. Tim Thomas makes a ripe, rouged, bawdy Dame in a crinoline that's frilled, flounced and eventually bodice-ripped, while Loreto Murray's tough-fighting, adventure-loving Joanna strikes a number of blows for female assertiveness.

There's a ready roughness about the show that beats hands down the inhumanly glossy sheen and over-amplification of many commercial pantos. Though it's true, away from the miked songs, some of the Everyman cast struggle for audibility at times.

The overused 'size doesn't matter' joke turns up, but excusably; for Tony Lidington's production isn't without spectacle. There's a finely contrived transformation from inn to ship's prow. And after the infamous Black Spot has been delivered by a parrot, there's a frantic game of buck-passing Black Spot Tag.

In a suitably progressive ending, everyone decides to live happily ever after on the desert island, while the pirates take off with the loot because, as they explain, nobody else wants it. And the parrot's egg, long threatened by villainous Long John, hatches unexpectedly, providing, I suppose, a new parrot joke.

Lady Trelwany: Ruth Alexander
Boompsa Daisy: Ellie Leah
Joanna Trelawney: Loreto Murray
Israel Hands: Michael Neary
Beryl Hawkins: Tim Thomas
Billy Bones/Ben Gunn: Kevin Tucker
Long John Silver: David Tysall
Jim Hawkins: Jonathan Wright

Director: Tony Lidington
Musical Director: Tayo Akinbode
Designer: Jocelyn Meall
Lighting: Dave Horn
Sound: Kal Ross
Choreographer: Lucy Cullingford
Fight director: Renny Krupinski

2001-12-03 01:44:06