Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum’s adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic pirate novel, Treasure Island, is absolutely good fun. Audiences today are used to watching action stories on screens, but beholding the WGTB troupers leap off the page onto the stage to enact duels, chases, pistol, musket, and cannon fire live and in the flesh, en masse, is deliciously delightful to see in person. Enhancing the action-packed mise-en-scene, executed by a cast of dozens, deftly directed by Ellen Geer, is how the company makes full use of and incorporates into the blocking the woodsy environs that WGTB’s amphitheater is ensconced in.
Stevenson’s 1883 saga of “buccaneers and buried gold” at a remote Caribbean Isle has long been a favorite for children of all ages. This production, which includes violence and even bloodshed, may not really be suitable for children under 12 or so, which is roughly the age, more or less, that Jim Hawkins (Ruben Jones) is supposed to be. When the proverbial curtain lifts, Jim is serving grog and grub at the Admiral Benbow Inn located in Bristol, England, owned by his mother (Willow Geer) and ailing father (an offstage presence). Enter The Captain, aka Billy Bones (played with great piratical panache by Jeff Bergquist), who throws the Inn’s staid, conventional vibe into disarray with his outrageous yarnspinning about the pirate’s life and imbibing of copious drams of rum, as well as a duel with another scallywag, Black Dog (portrayed on opening night by Jesse Corwin).
Billy Bones’ map of treasure buried at a far away island in the Caribbean sets off one of the most famous adventure stories in British literature, as Dr. Livesey (the dashing WBTG veteran Aaron Hendry), Squire Trelawney (depicted with Jack Black-like gusto by the droll Steven C. Fisher), and Captain Smollett (Arthur Hanket) set out to find the hidden chest of gold aboard the Hispaniola, with our lad Jim leaving his well-ordered life and mom behind to become the pirate ship’s resourceful cabin boy. Mutiny, swordplay, gunplay, piracy, and more ensue as the Hispaniola crosses the Atlantic in search of gold. Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
This is a wonderful adaptation of RLS’s 18th-century-set tale by Ellen Geer, with a fine feminist touch that adds to the enjoyment. In WGTB’s version, Ben Gunn, the marooned pirate, becomes Jen Gunn, who, in a double role, Willow Geer assails with great verve and zest. If there’s any justice in our unjust world, Willow will be remembered fondly during awards season for her puckish performance as a most unladylike buccaneer, who lights up the stage with her sparkly, slightly maniacal presence. (I don’t mean to do a plot spoiler, but for what may be the two-act show’s biggest laugh, listen closely to what Jen Gunn does with her share of the loot.) Willow’s twin turns as the conservative mother and the outrageous Jen Gunn may be a wry commentary on the dual nature of women.
The versatile Gerald C. Rivers is also outstanding as the famed literary figure Long John Silver, the lovable rogue who befriends Jim. In the innumerable screen renditions of Treasure Island, the one-legged buccaneer has been portrayed by the great British character actor Robert Newton in Disney’s 1950 color version, and by Orson Welles in a 1972 iteration (no wisenheimer, it’s not called Citizen Silver!). A longtime member of WGTB’s company of thesps best known for his uncanny reenactment of Rev. King, in this production, Gerald holds his own in comparison to his illustrious Long John forebears. Young Mr. Jones keeps the 150-minute or so show together with his charming performance as the plucky Jim Hawkins, who comes of age during his odyssey and may discover that the pirate’s life is not for me.
I have a special place in my heart for Treasure Island for a couple of reasons. When I attended elementary school at P.S. 113 in Queens, every year around holiday time, all of the classes would be regaled with an annual screening in the assembly. In those days of yore, before streaming and digital, the movie would be shown via a 16mm projector hauled into the assembly, and the film that played was invariably the 1934 iteration of Treasure Island, starring Jackie Cooper as Jim, Wallace Beery as a peglegged Long John Silver, Lionel Barrymore as Billy Bones, and Nigel Bruce as Squire Trelawney. Annually, throughout grammar school, Treasure Island was always screened, year in and year out, unfailingly the same fading flick. What I didn’t realize then was that the director of this black-and-white swashbuckler was Victor Fleming, who five years later went on to helm a little Technicolor epic you might have heard of entitled Gone with the Wind.
The other reason Treasure Island means so much to me is that, once upon a time, many moons ago, I lived in Upolu, Western Samoa, where Stevenson is buried. I used to visit the mansion of the “Tusitala”—“Teller of Tales”—at Vailima, and climb Mt. Vaea to RLS’s grave, with its monument to the marvelous scribe who left us far too soon and was a champion of the Indigenous people in their struggle against European colonizers. Stevenson wrote his own requiem, which is emblazoned there as his epitaph upon a plaque at his gravesite, which unforgettably started:
“Under the wide and starry sky –”
Which is exactly how you’ll experience this dramatization of Tusitala’s Treasure Island at WGTB’s open-air, outdoor theater, which remains the found treasure of Topanga Canyon.
Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum is presenting Treasure Island through October 3 in repertory with Romeo & Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Noel Coward’s Waiting in the Wings, and The People of Pompeii at 1419 North Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga, California 90290. For info and tickets, call 310-455-3723 or visit here.
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