When two women offer their services to a crew setting off for adventures at sea, young Jim Hawkins expresses his surprise. They have always been there, the women tell Jim, but just haven’t been well documented. Playwright Hannah Khalil is rectifying this in her retelling of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic by combining his tale of buccaneers and buried gold with that of 19th-century female sailors – but without making it a jarring history lesson.
It is structured as a relived memory for Jim, who is looking to the moment an old shipmate of Captain Flint enters his mother’s inn and dies. That death sets off the discovery of Flint’s map containing the location of hidden treasure, and the expedition to find it by a ragtag fleet of sailors. Among them is Long John Silver, the pirate disguised as a cook, and the two female sailors who scheme to mutiny and take control of the treasure.
All characters are played by the theatre’s Young Company, aged between 18 and 25. You would never know it from their mature performances. Under the direction of Natasha Rickman, they look and sound like a company of polished actors across the board, full of exuberance, pace, mischief and fun. It is an extraordinary achievement.
The young Jim (Kit Riou on the day I saw the production) exudes boyish bravery while the older Jim (Alex Bousfield) is agile and excellently brooding. Long John Silver (Angus Alderson) has a fox-like quality and is, refreshingly, not played with Johnny Depp kookiness but an understated charisma and elegance. His parrot is voiced by Taz Rahman with superb comic inflections. Every other character is memorable while the ensemble is an energetic swirl of dancing and singing.
The real-life stories of sailors, Anne Bonny (India Rissik) and Mary Read (Ferah Jennela), both of whom moved through the world disguised as men, sit naturally within the drama, bringing surprise and pathos.
Anett Black and Neil Irish’s set features a central treasure-like chest that turns into the good ship Hispaniola on which the crew set sail, and a gold metallic floor stands in for the treasure that lies buried beneath the characters’ feet. The movement (directed by Annie-Lunnette Deakin-Foster) of many actors flows across a tight circular stage but never looks cramped.
Khalil’s script has humour, tension and song. Sea shanties are set to synthesiser sounds and reggae beats. It is an utterly enchanting sea-dog story, told with bracingly youthful verve.
