Patsy Ferran (Jim Hawkins) and Arthur Darvill (Long John Silver).
More theatrical than knuckle-whiteningly dramatic, this NT Live* production of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic 1883 adventure book is nevertheless an eye-poppingly brilliant display of stagecraft with a show-stealing turn from a remote-controlled animatronic parrot.
That would be Captain Flint, who perches on the shoulder of Long John Silver in the
retelling of a tale rich in evocative names: Blind Pugh, Black Dog, Billy Bones.
Lizzie Clachan's design is the real star of the show: the appearance of the schooner Hispaniola, which seemed to build itself before our eyes, drew a sustained ovation and she conjures a tavern, a wharfside, inflatable rocks, underground tunnels and more besides with deceptive ease.
The new adaptation by Bryony Lavery pays tribute to the writer's tomboy childhood by giving a gender-inclusive twist to a story all but one of whose original characters were male: the youngster narrator, Jim Hawkins, is actually Jemima, and fully half the treasure-hunting crew, including Dr Livesey, is female.
The play has a modern, quasi-Freudian perspective on the relationship between Jim and Long John - a lucid interval featurette argues that the story is a metaphor for the voyage of adolescence in which we learn that not all adults are trustworthy. Even so, Silver (Darvill, whom Doctor Who fans will recognise as Rory) seems more dandyish than dread-inducing.
