Recognized by savvy audiences as one of Chicago's premiere theaters for youth, Adventure Stage is noted for its excellent original plays and adaptations of important juvenile literary works. It lives up to the its name with the current offering, "The Ghosts of Treasure Island." This production is full of adventure and is a fine example of what this company is all about.
Playwright Eric Schmiedl has adapted Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 classic of pirates and buried treasure,for contemporary young audiences. The play features most of the book's major characters and plot twists, including Long John Silver, Jim Hawkins, Billy Bones, schooners, swashbuckling sword fights and a treasure map with an 'X' marking the spot of the buried loot. While it's not quite a musical, Schmiedl has incorporated a rowdy pirate combo into the mix, who provide background music and songs. They add a present-day, heavy-metal rock feel to the story of a teenage boy longing for and becoming immersed to his eyeballs in adventure. The play provides yet another version of the coming-of-age tale, full of bold characters, mysterious atmosphere and some moral commentary for young audiences.
The real star of this production is Chelsea Warren's magnificent scenic design, from the pirate band shipwrecked upstage within a decayed ship's hull to the series of planks and fabric that acts as a pier, the beach, the floor of the Hawkins' Seaside Inn and ultimately the good ship Hispaniola - complete with movable rigging, wheel, masts, and sails. All locales are enhanced by Mikhail Fiksel's authentic sound design and Brandon Wardell's atmospheric lighting.
James Zoccoli creates a wooden-legged Long John Silver who is delightfully charming one minute and ruthless, manipulative and without a conscience the next. Jim Hawkins is played with youthful enthusiasm by Kroydell Galima and Adam Verner, in addition to his pirate bully O'Brien, creates a delightfully Gollum-like Ben Gunn, the castaway pirate with a passionate longing for cheese. Full of adventure and seasoned with ghosts providing a moral lesson, this production is the perfect 90-minute romp for the "Pirates of the Caribbean" crowd.
Reviewed by Centerstage!
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