Director Robyn Peers says the choice of the year’s junior production was an easy one. Stuart Patterson’s adaptation of the famous children’s story seemed to be the right length and was very accessible, as it told the story clearly and explained the journey of cabin boy Jim in a way the audience could relate to.
were able to create some amazing scenery. It gave us a different way of doing things.’’ While it is an action-packed adventure story, Treasure Island is really a story about greed, about a young cabin boy coming up against good and evil, especially in his relationships with Long John Silver and Ben Gunn. Jim recognises that not all is what it first seems and
that evil can be cloaked in a mask of good. He realises that the supposed “good’’ characters such as Squire Trelawny and the Doctor are just as capitalistic and greedy as the pirates. Robyn Peers and Drama Director David Chambers are full of praise
“Last October we chose the cast, did the basic organising of scenes and had the boys memorising their lines, so they hit the ground running at the beginning of this year and we were able to have the production live by the middle of the first term,” says Robyn. “The storyline was very episodic with a lot of short scenes which made the staging a little difficult, but the author suggested we undertook it in a straightforward manner. So we adapted the staging and had boxes and tables which could be used in different ways in different scenes. We also used the cast to change the scenes, which was a great learning experience for them. “The OBT was a perfect place to stage the production as it has a large screen at the back of the stage and we found strong images to indicate a sense of place. The department has just replaced its 17-year-old projector with a new state-of-the-art model, so we
for the impeccable costuming created by long-term College supporter, Mandy Dickie.
Christ’s College Canterbury
38
Made with FlippingBook HTML5