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Children’s favourite is ideal family summer entertainment

  • 4 hours ago
  • 2 min read
John Robert Partridge and cast. Photo courtesy of Fuz Films.
John Robert Partridge and cast. Photo courtesy of Fuz Films.

 Treasure Island performed by Tread the Boards at The Rother Street Arts House, Stratford-upon-Avon. Running from 27 – 31 May 2026. Directed by John-Robert Partridge.

Review by Charles Essex

 

Tread the Boards (TTB) made astute use of both the half term and their new alternative venue at the Rother Street Art House to bring a clever adaptation of this popular Robert Louis Stevenson story.  Although there were plenty of elements of pantomime to keep the young members of the audience happy, John-Robert Partridge’s (JP) direction steered away from the rather clichéd innuendos of pantomimes to give much cleverer word play whilst including some intentionally corny Christmas cracker-type jokes, which delighted this all-age audience. 

 

Matt Rousseau, who is cornering the local market on cheeky-chappy (principal) boys with his youthful appearance and expressive gestures, gave another accomplished performance, as Jim Hawkins.  Captain Billy Bones (George Ormerod, playing one of several roles) came into Jim’s family’s pub and started Jim on a quest for hidden treasure.  Encounters with rival pirates such as Black Dog (JP) came thick and fast and allowed lots of opportunities for “Oh, ar, Jim lad” and witty verbal and visual gags.  Martha Allen-Jones played not only pirate Israel Hands but was an excellent puppeteer to a grog-drinking parrot. 

 

Jim accompanied Squire Trelawney (George), Captain Smollett (JP) and Dr Livesey (Abigail Drennan) as they tried to reach the treasure before the pirates.  Also on board was Long John Silver (Rob Keeves).  George hammed up the Squire as an upper-class lisping twit who (literally) did not know one end of a flintlock from the other, while JP’s Captain was all military discipline, which gave the cast the opportunity to antics on parade. 


Martha Allen-Jones. Photo by Fuz Films.
Martha Allen-Jones. Photo by Fuz Films.

 

Abigail showed her tuneful singing, as songs were used from films or pop songs with altered lyrics.  JP also played castaway Ben Gunn, with a running joke about Gunn’s desire for cheese, incorporating puns as often as possible.  The sword fights were very impressive, reflecting the fact that several members of TTB have training as theatrical fight coordinators.  Particularly humorous was the slow-motion sword fight involving at least half a dozen of the cast.

 

There were some difficulties hearing all the dialogue, especially the quick one-liners, thus occasionally losing some of the humour.  Whether this was the speed at which the lines were delivered or the acoustics of the venue was unclear.  However, this was solid family entertainment which kept the audience smiling; and was a good debut production in the new Rother Street Arts House for TTB. 

 

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