This holiday season pirates, will be take the stage at Alberta Theatre Projects for Michael O’Brien’s adaptation of Treasure Island. A dozen of Calgary’s best actors will bring the story of Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins to life.
“What makes this interesting is it is the story of a boy entering the world of adulthood and learning that good and evil are not as clear cut as convention says they are. He finds himself in a very treacherous world that he has to negotiate through. His guide through this vast gray area is Long John Silver, who is one of the greatest characters in literature, ever,” O’Brien, a Toronto resident, told GayCalgary.com. This is the third time his adaptation has been performed. “It was developed at Young People’s Theatre in Toronto six years ago. We’ve done a fair amount of adaptations of classics, and were looking for something to do. I was hesitant at first because it is such a famous title and has been done before. I agreed to it because I wanted to give the piece more grit, realism and clarity than I had seen in prior stage productions. I wanted to focus on the scenes, stories and the characters.”
The show is a co-production with Quest Theatre, who have been doing youth productions at schools in Western Canada for more than two decades. Quest artistic director Duval Lang spoke about how this production came about.
”I was impressed that ATP has been doing family programs during the holidays for the last few years and approached [ATP artistic director] Bob White about doing a project together. I discovered a very nice adaptation of Treasure Island by Michael O’Brien and it developed from there.”
It can be a challenge to create something that entertains children and adults, but both the writer and director state the piece has done just that.
“I maintain that a good show for young audiences transcends all ages. Our work doesn’t talk down to young people. This one is written very well with great storytelling, which everyone is a sucker for,” Lang said. O’Brien agreed.
“The way to deal with it is not to worry about it and focus on the integrity of the story. When I write for children it’s not so much about what I don’t do than remembering who I am talking to and what they are going to take away from it; keeping a young point of view.”
Another challenge is telling a classic story. The Robert Louis Stevenson tale is a cherished story for all ages and it is important that the piece is done right. Lang spoke about the challenge of bringing the words to life on stage.
“It is always a challenge to do a classic like Treasure Island, especially in this case as it has a number of different locations. There is the physical challenge of representing that on stage, and a challenge of doing the story and being faithful to Robert Louis Stevenson in terms of the events of the novel. The production serves to layer in the descriptive elements that are so rich in the novel. The other important thing is casting, we had to find people that have the ability to play. We were best at being pirates in our early days and some of us continue to play in the vein. Those are the people I like to work with. We haven’t lost that sense of play, it is like a second skin to people who are good with young audiences. I’ve found a bunch of kindred spirits that I have worked with in the past and assembled a wonderful team good at storytelling, playing and slipping comfortably into large roles. I am particularly proud of the fact that all of the participants in the show – actors, designers and technicians - are all from Calgary.”
For O’Brien, he is glad to get to sit back and watch his piece come to life, taking young and old alike to a world of buried treasure, peg legged pirates and a different way of life.
“This piece taps into a world that is part of the collective imagination, so I don’t feel like I need to explain to a great degree what it is about. People grow up knowing this world already so I felt confident letting the performers just fly with it. The language is a lot of fun, when I read the book again after many years I resisted the language because there is something absurd and cliché about the pirate world. But all of the clichés and imagery we take for granted were coined for the first time in Treasure Island so I embraced the language and hope the production does too. Ultimately I see the play as an affirmation of life and this world as a place of adventure and growth.”
Alberta Theatre Projects in association with Quest Theatre
Treasure Island
November 26th – Dec 28th, 2005
215 – 8 Avenue SE
Phone: (403) 294-7402
http://www.atplive.com
