Treasure Island (Le Navet Bete stage version)

Fourteen-year-old Jim Hawkins is serving ale in The Admiral Benbow Inn - when suddenly the door slams open and in strides Billy Bones, the infamous pirate, to change Jim's life forever...

Soon, Jim finds himself on board The Jolly Todger and setting sail on the high seas. Alongside him, the crew includes Captain Birdseye, Black Dog, Blue Peter, the one-legged Long John Silver, and a parrot called Alexa - and their destination: a mysterious tropical paradise in the Caribbean named Treasure Island. Or Skeleton Island. Depends who you ask.

This riotously chaotic adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's beloved Treasure Island is a collaboration between John Nicholson (The Hound of the Baskervilles) and the physical-comedy theatre company Le Navet Bete, with their four actors playing dozens of characters.

Following the company's hilarious, hit adaptations of Dracula: The Bloody Truth and The Three Musketeers, it premiered at the Plymouth Athenaeum in 2019, and in a Black Spot-defying production at the Exeter Northcott Theatre in 2020, before touring nationally.

If you're looking for a rip-roaring, swashbuckling, family-friendly retelling of a classic story to perform with your theatre company or drama group, then X marks this spot.

'A ripping good yarn with an abundance of theatrical surprises'*The Stage*

Auteur

John Nicholson is a writer, performer and director and is an Artistic Director of the award-winning Peepolykus, with whom he has created twelve productions that have toured the company worldwide and into the West End with The Hound of the Baskervilles (which has also been licensed over 200 times worldwide). It's published by Nick Hern Books alongside four of John's other adaptations: The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary, Dracula: The Bloody Truth, The Three Musketeers and Treasure Island. For BBC Radio 4, John has written two afternoon plays, two series of A Trespasser's Guide to the Classics and a series of short stories with Rik Mayall. Writing/performing credits for TV include BBC3, BBC2, Paramount and ITV. Writing/directing commissions for theatre include Aardman, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, Bristol Old Vic, Lyric Hammersmith, Leeds Playhouse, Traverse Edinburgh, Jermyn Street Theatre, Barbican Plymouth, Sydney Opera House, Pickled Image, National Youth Theatre, BritishYMT, LIPA, Bath Theatre Royal, Pentabus, London Old Vic, Royal National Theatre, Spymonkey, Paul Merton, Nina Conti, Neal Street Productions and theatre company Le Navet Bete. He has recently completed a three-hander adaptation of The Time Machine. More details at johnnicholsoncomedytheatredirector.com