Treasure Island

Black Spots and Revelations

Treasure Island

by James Rushbrooke, after Robert Louis Stevenson

The Questors at the Judi Dench Playhouse, Ealing until 31^st December

Review by Andrew Lawston

Treasure Island is perhaps not the most obvious story to adapt into a pantomime.  But when you bear in mind some of the rougher edges that have been filed off the more traditional panto fairy tales, it quickly starts to make sense as a classic of children’s literature.

James Rushbrooke’s script opens with a brief introduction from Gareth Bevan’s Billy Bones.  As soon as he mentions the tale of Davey Jones, from Brixton, against the tinkling guitars of Life On Mars, it becomes clear that the script is going to be packed with more contemporary cultural references than you might expect from Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale of piracy.

Sure enough, as the Dame, Peggy Legge, introduces the packed audience to the Admiral Benbow Inn, a motley multi-generational crew of sailors launch into a version of the Village People’s disco classic In The Navy.  Peggy Legge is played by an irrepressible James Goodden, who is on stage almost constantly apart from frequent costume changes, and who drives much of the show’s energy.  When he begins misquoting lines from The League of Gentlemen, “this is a local pub for local people, there’s nothing for you here!”, it becomes clear that Rushbrooke is sampling a very broad range of material indeed.

Among the wordplay and songs, there are of course also jokes designed to go over the heads of younger audience members.  The script went slightly nearer the knuckle with this material than many pantomimes, and there were a couple of lines that may even have slipped past more than a few older audience members too.

We are quickly introduced to Jim Hawkins, played tonight by the spirited Edward Gamazeliuc, Peggy’s adopted son in this version, and to Peggy’s ten year old daughter Rosie, who for this performance was played with great charm by Bethan Hunter.  When the terrifying Blind Pugh appears to give Billy Bones the “Black Spot” (to the tune of Soft Cell’s Tainted Love), the tone quickly grows very dark, despite the up-beat musical number that accompanies Billy Bones suffering a fatal heart attack on stage.  Alex Marker seems to relish his brief spell of villainy, before he returns later as a different character, and he certainly coaxes an entire show’s worth of booing from the younger section of the audience.

As Jim Hawkins and Squire Trelawney (Tim Pemberton, having a wonderful time playing up the script’s more political jokes) decide to follow Billy’s map to uncover his buried treasure, the pantomime sticks relatively close to the source novel’s plot, as Trelawney hires a crew that includes Long John Silver (James Burgess, also having a wonderful time in the story’s most iconic role, with more than a dash of Captain Jack Sparrow about him) and Isobel Hands (Lizzie Taylor, also clearly relishing the chance to play a pirate), but in this version Doctor Livesey is in fact Squire Trelawney’s daughter and Jim’s love interest, Holly.  Played tonight by Alex Kern, Holly is a suitably strong female character for a 21^st century pantomime, and wears her fake moustache with panache.

Robert Vass and Simon Higginson provide a great double act throughout the show as the unfortunately-named pirates Bates and Staines.  They are generally surrounded by the rest of the Pirate Gang, played tonight by Rory Andrews, Elina Ghal, Nikill Ghal and Francesca Young.  For a group of bloodthirsty buccaneers, the pirates are all great fun.  There are several audience interaction moments where the children in the audience seem deeply divided on whom to cheer for.  It’s very difficult to view the pirates as outright villains in this version of the story.

The script sensibly divides the action so that the first act is spent at the Admiral Benbow and at sea, while the second act mostly takes place on the island itself.  Just before the interval, we also get a wonderful fantasy sequence as Davey Jones (aka Ziggy Starfish) captures Rosie and Jim.  Essentially an excuse for a David Bowie medley full of undersea puppets, Jacob Chancellor has one of the stronger voices in the cast, and he pulls off several Bowie numbers with great aplomb and a successful impersonation of the iconic star.

The songs are certainly a feature of this production, most rewritten with wry nautical-themed lyrics by Helen Cooper.  It would probably spoil a few surprises to name many of them, but suffice it to say that there’s something from everyone with songs ranging from the Beatles to Blur, and taking in Bowie and the Blues Brothers en route – and those are just the performers who begin with B! Inevitably, some of the musical numbers are more popular with the young audience than others, but the cast attack them all with gusto under the musical direction of Dave Roberts.

Rushbrooke’s script takes in a wide range of locations, and director Howard Shepherdson adds to this ambition with a huge cast including the young chorus, including several mermaids and octopi.  All of them are in wonderful costumes courtesy of costume designer Carla Evans.  The songs’ rewritten lyrics are full of jokes, and the dialogue also has an extremely high rate of gags.  Shepherdson wisely allows his cast space to land each joke, but the action still moves along at a cracking pace.  The production’s ambition is also highlighted by Alex Marker’s lavish set, which is commendably solid and entertainingly cartoonish, full of lovely details and flourishes.

The humour doesn’t stop with the music and script, however.  Even sound designer Dan Tigg gets his fair share of laughs with Ben Gunn’s quacking ducks and various other sound effects, including a cheeky use of the TARDIS cloister bell sound effect from Doctor Who.

Towards the end of the show, a few of the youngest audience members are beginning to flag as the plot’s loose ends are tied up with most of the principal cast discovering various lost family connections, but lively closing musical numbers, where Tim Edwards gets to really let rip with his lighting, ensure that everyone is clapping along with some children literally bouncing in their seats with excitement.  This is a highly ambitious production full of fun for the entire family.

Andrew Lawston, December 2023

Photography by Carla Marker