Maggy Franklin

CASTLE HILL PLAYERS PRESENT TREASURE ISLAND @ THE PAVILION THEATRE

Treasure Island

A rollicking night of high adventure, action and pirate treasure, not to mention voluminous quotes from the Bard is a great way for the Castle Hill Players to kick off their 50th anniversary year.

Based on the classic novel Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, Ken Ludwig’s adaptation, well directed by Jeremy Johnson, has added a few touches to the original. Ludwig frames the action as Jim Hawkins’ memory of the fateful treasure hunt. He also adds a complex backstory in which Jim’s Shakespeare-loving dad had a dubious connection with Long John Silver, a device that enables Jim to see the pirate as being akin to a surrogate father, with the two of them swapping quotes from the Bard.

The show begins at an inn on the Devon coast of England in 1775 and quickly becomes an swashbuckling tale of treachery and mayhem featuring a those legendary characters including the dangerous, drunken Billy Bones (Phil Lye), the sinister two-timing Israel Hands (Stijn Vermeulen), the brassy woman pirate Anne Bonney (Therese Bean), the evil & creepy Blind Pew (Holly Vincent), devious Black Dog (Larry Murphy) the fancy Squire Trelawney (Tim Robertson) and Doctor Livsey (Julian Floriano). At the center of it all is bright eyed Jim Hawkins (Jonathon Burt) a 14-year-old boy who longs for adventure, and the infamous Long John Silver (Ben Freeman), whose character is a complex study of good and evil.

Completing the cast are Dennis Channells, Nick Hoschke, Braden Ligertwood, Ron Parnell, Robert Snars, Aurel Vasilescu, Daniel Vavosour and Gavin Woodford who each add colour and vigour to the production.

The set serves equally well as the deck of the Hispaniola, the Admiral Benbow Inn and the stockade and jungle on Skeleton Island. The atmosphere is heightened with varied sound and lighting effects, not to mention the  fight scenes and a couple of men being thrown overboard.

“Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest / Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum”. For a great night of family fun go and see the Castle Hill Players production of TREASURE ISLAND playing at the Pavilion Theatre, Doran Drive, Castle Hill until the 27th  February. Bookings http://www.paviliontheatre.org.au

Published by Maggy Franklin

Maggy Franklin has been involved in theatre and musical theatre in Sydney for many years. She has a teaching diploma in Speech and Drama, has attended Darlo Drama classes, acted and directed in Crash Test Drama, directed at Short and Sweet Sydney, is a regular judge at Short and Sweet and has directed in the Sydney Fringe Festival. She runs the large internet based social theatre group Theatre Time Sydney which organises groups to attend and support independent theatre. An ex-high school teacher, she works in aged care, plays tennis, gets to the cinema whenever possible, and is a Lifeline volunteer. She believes one can never go to too much theatre, and there is always something to be experienced at every production.