Treasure Island Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh 29th November 2024 Review
Treasure Island is at the Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh until Saturday 4 January 2025 and is a very loose re-working of the classic 1883 adventure/coming of age story by Robert Louis Stevenson.
The chances are high that many of us in the audience tonight have read the original story (in one form or another) or watched one of the numerous television or film adaptations of it, so bringing a work like this to the stage was a pretty safe move for everyone involved in this production.
At first, the idea of setting the beginning of the story in North Edinburgh’s finest home for reformed pirates seems to be an interesting and, as far as I know, not used before twist to this classic tale, but almost immediately things start to not live up to their original potential. I accept that this is a Christmas show, and I accept that it is targeted at young children, but why does this story (and so many others in recent years) treat children in such an infantile manner? Children are far brighter than most adults ever give them credit for and the fact that so many children have loved the original RLS novel, or adaptations of it, for nearly 150 years, just proves that writing down to them like this is simply not needed.
This reworking of Treasure Island sets sail from the port of Leith and heads for the hidden treasure which is located on one of the Orkney Islands. The script is littered with references to Leith, many of which have little to do with the Leith that I know.
There are some plusses to this show. The cast all performed as they were obviously directed to and the script had a few moments of humour. The idea of using the Lyceum stage itself with its many trap-doors and ropes for above and below the deck of the “Hispaniola” was an interesting use of the physical stage itself. The use of live music too was a welcome addition to the show.
All through this show there was that conflict between an often very serious (if very gullible) Jim (Jade Chan) and the rest of the characters, and maybe none more so than the way that Lean Jean Silver (Amy Conachan) abused this trust. This show has an experienced cast and although they were often creating mayhem on stage that was clearly targeted at a young age group, it was oddly the adults in the audience and not the children that were engaging the most with this show tonight. As I have seen this type of audience reaction repeated at many shows over the last few years, the question has to be asked “has what young children react to on-stage changed over the years and adults simply not noticed it”?
Even the puppet puffin of Lean Jean Silver could not save this show for me as there was always a big albatross somewhere on the horizon.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
The chances are high that many of us in the audience tonight have read the original story (in one form or another) or watched one of the numerous television or film adaptations of it, so bringing a work like this to the stage was a pretty safe move for everyone involved in this production.
At first, the idea of setting the beginning of the story in North Edinburgh’s finest home for reformed pirates seems to be an interesting and, as far as I know, not used before twist to this classic tale, but almost immediately things start to not live up to their original potential. I accept that this is a Christmas show, and I accept that it is targeted at young children, but why does this story (and so many others in recent years) treat children in such an infantile manner? Children are far brighter than most adults ever give them credit for and the fact that so many children have loved the original RLS novel, or adaptations of it, for nearly 150 years, just proves that writing down to them like this is simply not needed.
This reworking of Treasure Island sets sail from the port of Leith and heads for the hidden treasure which is located on one of the Orkney Islands. The script is littered with references to Leith, many of which have little to do with the Leith that I know.
There are some plusses to this show. The cast all performed as they were obviously directed to and the script had a few moments of humour. The idea of using the Lyceum stage itself with its many trap-doors and ropes for above and below the deck of the “Hispaniola” was an interesting use of the physical stage itself. The use of live music too was a welcome addition to the show.
All through this show there was that conflict between an often very serious (if very gullible) Jim (Jade Chan) and the rest of the characters, and maybe none more so than the way that Lean Jean Silver (Amy Conachan) abused this trust. This show has an experienced cast and although they were often creating mayhem on stage that was clearly targeted at a young age group, it was oddly the adults in the audience and not the children that were engaging the most with this show tonight. As I have seen this type of audience reaction repeated at many shows over the last few years, the question has to be asked “has what young children react to on-stage changed over the years and adults simply not noticed it”?
Even the puppet puffin of Lean Jean Silver could not save this show for me as there was always a big albatross somewhere on the horizon.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com