TREASURE ISLAND. To 13 January.
London.
TREASURE ISLAND
OR PARROTS OF THE CARIBBEAN
based on the novel by R L Stevenson adapted by Chris Pickles music by Paul Knight.
King’s Head Theatre 115 Upper Street N1 1QN To 13 January 2008.
Tue-Sun 1pm (Sun), 1.30pm (Thu, Sat), 4.30pm (Tue-Fri). Mat Sat 10.30am.
Runs 2hr 5min One interval.
TICKETS: 020 7226 1916.
www.kingsheadtheatre.org
Review: Timothy Ramsden 28 December.
Five actors camp on Treasure Island.
These three paragraphs might seem irrelevant, but should explain my view of Hidden Pearl‘s production. Several years ago I enjoyed a full-blooded account of R L Stevenson’s adventure story at the Palace Theatre, Westcliff-on-Sea, which buckled its swashes over three tiers of set. But audience members kept complaining it was the Christmas show and needed laughs. It wasn’t, they effectively complained, a pantomime.
Then, a couple of summers back Phil Wilmott directed an open-air production at London’s Scoop which, if not a pantomime, came pretty close at times, memorably in Ben Gunn’s extended song in praise of cheese and incorporating so many fromagian puns I camembert to recall them. I found this increasingly frustrating. Stevenson offers enough adventure and character interest to entertain without flaunting late-night pub puns or fishing around for contrived laughs.
Within a month I was watching with increased despondency as another adapter soaked Stevenson in a mess of psycho-stodge at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, drowning the novel’s narrative exhilaration. Oh, my mind rued, for a few cheesy puns to lighten the Pitlochry evening. So I’m not easily pleased when it comes to Treasure Island adaptations, nor necessarily in line with what others want.
The King’s Head stage is laid out, as for the other current production here, Rough Music. A strip of stage runs between two sets of audience benches, with a raised stage at one end. It’s intimate (Billy Bones leered viciously when he caught me looking at him before the story started) yet flexible, allowing more end-stage style acting and groupings on the raised section.
No source is sacred, theatrically speaking, but there’s a corresponding responsibility on any adapter, travesty-maker or whatever to show a level of invention broadly matching the original. Simply, you can mock, subvert or alter as you will, but only if you give the sense you could have come up with something as good as the original if you’d wanted.
Alas, the lamentable, shallow and obvious jokes here, the coarse acting, witless sexual innuendo and evident self-delight at their own performances (only one can sing tunefully) make this a painful experience.
Cast: Rafe Beckley, Stephen Daltry, David Levine, Asa Joel, Richard Stemp.
Director: Chris Pickles.
Designer: Norman Coates.
Lighting/Sound: Derek Carlyle.
Musical Supervisor: Paul Knight.
Musical Director: Stephen Daltry.
Choreographer: Kate Tydman.
Costume: Adrian Lillie.
Puppets: Scott Brooker.
Associate director: Ken Bentley.
2008-01-08 00:33:05