Treasure Island − Learning Guide

About This Guide ...... 1 Background Information ...... 2 Teaching Information ...... 4 Production Notes Key Design Elements ...... 6 Performance Style ...... 13 Key Moments ...... 14 Adaptation Details & Plot Synopsis...... 15 Find Out More ...... 21

1 Treasure Island − Learning G uide

About

This learning guide supports the National Theatre’s production of Treasure Island, directed by Polly Findlay, which opened on 11th December 2014 at the National’s Olivier Theatre in London.

Our packs are designed to support viewing the recording on the National Theatre Collection. This pack provides links to the UK school curriculum and other productions in the Collection. It also has a plot synopsis with timecodes to allow you to jump to specific sections of the play.

Here you’ll also find all the information you need to enable you to study the production and write about it in detail. This includes notes about all of the key elements from performance style to design. You’ll also find pointers for further research.

1 Treasure Island − Learning Guide Background Information Recording Date – 22nd January, 2015 Location – Olivier Theatre, National Theatre Age Recommendation – 9+

Cast

Jim Hawkins...... Patsy Ferran Grandma ...... Gillian Hanna Bill Bones ...... Aidan Kelly Dr Livesey ...... Alexandra Maher Squire Trelawny/Voice of the Parrot...... Nick Fletcher Mrs Crossley ...... Alexandra Maher Red Ruth ...... Heather Dutton Job Anderson ...... Raj Bajaj Silent Sue ...... Lena Kaur Black Dog ...... Daniel Coonan Blind Pew ...... David Sterne Captain Smollett ...... Paul Dodds Long John Silver ...... Arthur Darvill Lucky Mickey ...... Jonathan Livingstone Joan the Goat ...... Claire-Louise Cordwell Israel Hands ...... Angela de Castro Dick the Dandy ...... David Langham Killigrew the Kind ...... Alastair Parker George Badger ...... Oliver Birch Grey ...... Tim Samuels Ben Gunn ...... Joshua James Shanty Singer ...... Roger Wilson Parrot (Captain Flint) ...... Ben Thompson

2 Treasure Island − Learning Guide Background Information Recording Date – 22nd January, 2015 Location – Olivier Theatre, National Theatre Age Recommendation – 9+

Creative Team

Director ...... Polly Findlay Adaptation ...... Bryony Lavery Designer ...... Lizzie Clachan Lighting Designer ...... Bruno Poet Composer ...... John Tams Creative Associate ...... Carolina Valdés Fight Director ...... Bret Yount Movement Director ...... Jack Murphy Music and Sound Designer ...... Dan Jones Illusions ...... Chris Fisher Comedy Consultant ...... Clive Mendus

3 Treasure Island − Learning Guide Teaching Information

This production is particularly suitable for:

• Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 students who are studying the original novel. • Anyone with an interest in the adaptation of novels for the stage. • Drama and theatre students studying Polly Findlay as a contemporary practitioner. • Production arts students with a particular interest in set design and automation.

In particular you might like to explore:

• The innovative staging of the production how the various locations from the novel come to life on the Olivier stage. • The decision to change the role of Jim to make the character female. • How the actors playing the pirates use voice and physical movement to create their characters. • How the music in the production, particularly the sea shanties, helps to create the world of the play and tell the story.

There are a number of other productions in the National Theatre Collection that relate to this one, which you and your students may wish to explore alongside it.

Other adaptations of novels for the stage Production Date Adaptation Director Peter Pan, Jane Eyre 2016 The Companies Sally Cookson

Small Island 2019 Helen Edmundson Rufus Norris

Frankenstein 2011 Nick Dear Danny Boyle

4 Treasure Island − Learning Guide Teaching Information

Other productions featuring members of the same creative team

Productions Artist Antigone Polly Findlay - Director Yerma Lizzie Clachan - Designer

Julius Caesar, Frankenstein Bruno Poet - Lighting Designer

Antigone Dan Jones - Sound Designer

Antigone Bret Yount - Fight Director

Other productions suitable for primary school students

Production Date Writer / Adaptor Director The Winter's Tale 2018 William Shakespeare Justin Audibert Justin Audibert

Peter Pan 2016 Sally Cookson and Sally Cookson The Company

Romeo and Juliet 2017 William Shakespeare Bijan Sheibani Ben Power

5 Treasure Island − Learning Guide Production Notes

The following notes have been compiled to help guide you through the significant design and performance aspects as you watch the production, or to remind you of them after you have watched it. You may also want to make your own notes and form your own opinions on the effectiveness of these aspects as you explore the production.

Key Design Elements: Set

There are a number of different locations in this play. The drum revolve helps to create these, and it is particularly helpful with transitions – part of the experience for the audience is watching a new set emerge. We are taken from what looks like a fairly bare stage, with wooden floorboards and with 9 vertical structures which look like the ribs of a large creature OR the skeleton structure of a ship (“the heart protected by the ribs” is a line on the back of the treasure map). Jim turns the winch in the centre of the stage to reveal the first location in the story.

The use of the revolve also helps the sense of travel. When Blind Pew’s men search around the Admiral Benbow Inn, the revolve moves.

As you would expect the design is based on wooden structures, including a wooden cart outside the Admiral Benbow Inn. Much of the furniture is also wooden.

6 Treasure Island − Learning Guide Production Notes

The size and scale of the Olivier stage allows the use of spectacular sets to create:

• The Admiral Benbow Inn: There are two levels, and a short connecting staircase. Bill Bones’s room is on the upper level.

• Bristol: what was the roof of the inn becomes a shallow level on stage on which Long John Silver sits (as if on a kerb or a bench). Ropes and pulleys, and ensemble working around the set, shows the busy nature of the port.

• The Hispaniola (ship): We see both the deck and smaller rooms within the ship. Set dressing includes brass pans, lanterns, rope ladders and webbing and ropes and this practicality is contrasted by Squire Tralawney’s room which has painted walls (turquoise) and a hammock.

• The Island also has broken wooden planks, giving the impression of previous shipwrecks. Trapdoors in the revolve, covered with netting, allow Jim and Ben Gunn to dive into mud. Notice that there are various inflated domes (canvas) which appear to pulse and breathe, as if they are hot springs ready to erupt.

• The tunnels: stalactites of various sizes, a metal ladder, and several holes in the sides of the tunnel from which Trelawney pretends to be the voice of Flint.

• Note that the floor is also covered in what looks like wood or bark chippings and dirt – the set is richly textured and visually stimulating. The level of detail allows the audience to fully suspend their disbelief.

7 Treasure Island − Learning Guide Production Notes

Key Design Elements: Costume

The costume design uses an eclectic range of colour and fabric. Many of these characters are itinerant, poor or scavengers.

• Grandma: pink and purple woolen ear muffs, apron, striped coloured shawl under which are visible black and white spotted sleeves of a blouse, mid calf skirt and brown shoes.

• Jim: knitted hat, green trousers, beige and brown cardigan, -a dirty beige apron, her clothes are distressed, suggesting the poor nature of Jim and her grandma. She wears fingerless gloves.

• Bill Bones: black leather waistcoat with a brown distressed singlet underneath, various accessories that appear to be made of bone, teeth and shell.

• Dr Livesey: brown frock coat, a russet red waistcoat and trousers with a dusky pink collared blouse underneath.

• Squire Tralawney: black frock coat with large shells decorating the shoulder and chest area. Red tartan waistcoat and dark trousers. When he goes to Bristol, Trelawney changes into cream breeches and waistcoat and is wearing a blue admiral’s naval coat with gold brocade. He wears black buckled shoes. His Regency wig is removed on the island, he is balding underneath.

• Black Dog: Long dark coat with a black fur and fleece collar, black boots and grey knitted trousers, a beige felt hat, a sword in his belt, black fingerless gloves.

• Blind Pew: A long black coat which is heavily textured (the sleeves are layered and are similar to layers of armour), a large black hood, a long walking cane. In the ship scenes he has a prosthetic wooden leg, when we first meet him in Bristol the actor has hidden the lower half of that leg underneath him as he sits.

• Long John Silver: long, oilskin coat, brown boot on one leg. When we first see him his left leg is covered with a blanket.

8 Treasure Island − Learning Guide Production Notes

• Captain Smollett also wears a naval jacket, tricorn hat, white waistcoat and breeches.

• Red Ruth, Lucky Mickey, Job Anderson and Silent Sue are not wearing clothes suitable for a sea voyage – again an eclectic mix of colour and fabric.

• Long John Silver’s crew wear a range of costumes, from Dick the Dandy’s pink costume (pink stockings, breeches, frock coat and neck scarf), Joan the Goat wear brown and black and has metal plate on her forehead. He has a wooden crutch.

• Ben Gunn’s costume is grey and appears dusty. He is in ragged trousers and is topless.

• Grey is, as his name suggests, completely pale grey in shirt and trousers.

9 Treasure Island − Learning Guide Production Notes

Key Design Elements: Lighting

• Follow spot when Jim speaks to the audience. • Blue lights from upstage left and right, above the stage. • The meeting between Blind Pew and Bill Bones turn a cold blue wash downstage. • Shadow and darkness is important because this is an adventure story with aspects of mystery. • The different rooms in the Hispaniola are internally lit to expose action during Jim’s narrative. • Flickering and bright flashes of light for the storm on the Hispaniola. • Lanterns in the rig are also lit to mimic the constellations. • In the opening of Act 2, the lights become a yellow hue which reflects the heat of the island, but also the sulphureous desolate, abandoned nature of the island. • Haze/dry ice is used to enhance the lighting effects and create atmosphere. • Star cloth for stars in a dark night sky.

10 Treasure Island − Learning Guide Production Notes

• The tunnels are very dimly lit, whilst the ground above is lit from above to make the difference in locations particularly clear.

• Spotlight on the hole in the tunnel wall through which Trelawney pretends to be Captain Flint.

• Various individual lights on set, including wall lanterns in the inn and on the ship help add to the atmosphere but are not part of the lighting plot itself.

Key Design Elements: Sounds

• A live band provides the soundtrack, including string music and ensemble singing (on stage and from the wings).

• Recorded sound of waves, chiming clocks, coins falling from the false lid of Bill’s treasure chest, the creaking of the ship, the sound of dripping water in the tunnels.

• Echoed singing and whistling as part of the narrative (created by microphone and amplifier).

• Look closely at the way light focuses our attention on Jim and his narration and the lighting over the rest of the stage is dimmed. (e.g. 0.07.39 as Jim narrates).

• Echoing whistles to create mood and atmosphere.

• Incidental music, which is very filmic, to create tension and signal the next dramatic arrival of villainous characters.

Key Design Elements: Wigs, Hair and Make-up

• Bill Bones is heavily scarred and tattooed on his arms, chest and his bare skull. He also has a beard which is curled into two dreadlocks.

• Dr Livesey’s wig is styled to look practical and respectable – it contrasts sharply with characters such as Grandma and Jim whose hair is unkempt. It suggests the difference in wealth and lifestyle.

• Squire Trelawney wears a Regency style wig which looks quite fluffy.

11 Treasure Island − Learning Guide Production Notes

• Blind Pew’s make up is created with wig and prosthetics.

• Joan the Goat has dreadlocks and also has a metal plate on her forehead (where she had fractured her skull on a voyage).

• Ben Gunn wears dreadlocks and has yellow make up around his eyes (spans from beneath his nose up to mid forehead). He appears ‘other worldly’.

• Long John Silver has long hair with long plaits or dreadlocks emerging from underneath his hat. He wears heavy eyeliner under his eyes.

• Grey’s face and hair is light grey – he is given a ghostly pallor, which makes it easy for everyone to ignore/not notice hi.

Key Design Elements: Puppetry

• Captain Flint – a puppet parrot. A mechanised parrot is seen downstage left when first referred to by Long John Silver, and stage right in the galley kitchen. We also see flashes of bird like colours or feathers in various other parts of the play to suggest that he is flying. (In the theatre, he was also seen in the auditorium).

• Captain Flint also sits on Long John Silver’s shoulder – he wears a different coat which aids the operation and attachment of the puppet.

• Captain Flint is voiced by an actor who is offstage.

12 Treasure Island − Learning Guide Production Notes

Performance Style

• Direct address/narration for Jim to tell the story, right from the beginning of the show. It is Jim’s story.

• Note that there are some elements of props that are slightly exaggerated such as the syringe that Dr Livesey uses on Bill Bones. There are also several fake body parts (a hand and a foot) as part of Jim’s nightmare visions of what is to come.

• There are also other props designed to create comedy, such as the octopus that comes out of Bill Bones’s trunk, a large statue of the Virgin Mary and maracas!

• The ensemble assist with transitions, for example we see the creation of the ship’s decking before the drum revolve then creates the ‘big reveal’ of the Hispaniola. These transitions means there are no intrusive set transitions or breaks in the action.

• Like old fashioned melodrama, there are several tableaux in which the lighting changes, dramatic music plays and Jim looks out to the audience to convey her reaction – look particularly at 0.39.00 when Kim realises she has met Long John Silver.

• Song is a vital element to this storytelling style – to create atmosphere, to move the narrative and to create group identity with the pirates/crew. Sea shanties are an influence here.

13 Treasure Island − Learning Guide Production Notes

Key Moments

You might like to consider these key moments in particular when you are studying the production.

• Squire Trelawney, Dr Livesey and Bill Bones in the Inn, Jim’s narration : 00.05.00-0.07.39 • Sword fight between Bill Bones and Black Dog, which also demonstrates the different levels of the set: 0.09.20 – 0.11.00 • Entrance of Blind Pew: 0.14.20 -0.20.35 (includes him being impaled on his own stick) • The discovery of the map: 0.21.52 – 0.23.21 • Set transition to the streets of Bristol: 0.24.25 – 0.26.00 • The big ship reveal 0.35.05 – 0.37.15 • The storm: 0.42.45 – 044.10 • Opening of Act 2, reveal of the island. 0.58.00 - 0.59.00 • Jim’s monologue and Ben Gunn – her first on the island: 1.01.40 –01.07.50 • Ben Gunn’s monologue: 1.18.00 – 1.19.13 • Jim steers the Hispaniola, ensemble singing, use of revolve to suggest travel 1.21.45 – 1.24.00 • Entrance into the tunnels: 1.27.50 – 1.29.55 • The voyage home 1.38.10 – 1.40.00 (END)

14 Treasure Island − Learning G uide Adaptation Details & Plot Synopsis

Differences to Robert Louis Stevenson's Original

Bryony Lavery’s adaptation condenses Stevenson’s novel into around 100 minutes. There are generally minor changes to the plot (major changes to the ending), and it employs a lighter tone intended for wider audiences.

• Jim’s parents are cut, with the role of his mother instead being his grandmother. • Blind Pew is trampled to death by soldier’s horses in the novel. In this version he is impaled on his own stick. • Many of the ship’s crew have different names and roles in this version, and their characteristics are heightened for comedic effect. Various other minor characters including sailors and crew are cut. • In this version Jim reveal’s Long John Silver’s crew are pirates before they leave for the island on the jolly boat, causing a fight to break out on the ship. • Captain Smollett is killed in this adaptation. • The pirates’ mutiny against Silver is quickly quashed in this version. He is not given the black spot and he never claims allegiance to the Doctor. • In this version the treasure is inside the island rather than Gunn’s hiding place, and Silver along with his crew are killed trying to recover it. • In the novel the return journey to England is long, travelling via America. That is cut in the play.

Act One, Scene One: Jim Hawkins enters and introduces the story. Black Cove, South-West England in the 18th Century. Jim and her Grandma run the Admiral Benbow Inn, a perilously precarious place to drink.

Scene Two (0:02:02): An old sailing captain, Bill Bones enters the Inn with a large sea chest, warning Jim to keep a lookout for a “seafaring man with one leg”.

Time passes, and Jim has nightmares of the one-legged man.

Scene Three (0:06:47): Bones is tortured by singing voices in his head and doesn’t pay his way at the Inn, angering Jim’s Grandma.

15 Treasure Island − Learning G uide Adaptation Details & Plot Synopsis

Scene Four (0:07:25): A former shipmate, Black Dog, arrives and confronts Bones, demanding to know the location of “Flint’s Fist”. They fight and Black Dog is chased off. The panic causes Bones to have a stroke; Dr Livesey treats him and he recovers.

Scene Five (0:12:13): Jim withholds drink from Bones to get answers out of him. He speaks vaguely about a ship called the Walrus and a terrible island where sailors went and vanished.

Scene Six (0:14:01): Blind Pew arrives demanding to see Bones. He delivers the black spot to Bones, who immediately drops dead. Pew leaves, promising to return at 10 o’clock. Jim and Grandma open Bones’ sea chest where they find a cask of gold coins and a book.

Scene Seven (0:18:33): Pew returns with a crew of accomplices but Jim and Grandma escape. The Cavalry arrive but Pew orders his accomplices to stay to look for Flint’s Fist. They kill Pew and flee.

16 Treasure Island − Learning G uide Adaptation Details & Plot Synopsis

Scene Eight (0:20:34): With the help of Dr Livesey and Squire Trelawny, Jim discovers that the chest belonged to Captain Flint, a notorious pirate. The also find a map, Flint’s Fist, with directions to a point on a mysterious island.

Trelawny and Livesey plan to travel to the island to find the treasure, taking Jim along as a cabin girl.

Scene Nine (0:24:44): The Company sing a sea shanty.

Scene Ten (0:25:56): Jim, Livesey and Trelawny are in Bristol with a schooner: the Hispaniola. Trelawny has acquired a Captain: Smollett and assembled an assorted crew including Red Ruth, Lucky Micky, Job Anderson, Silent Sue and Grey. The others leave and Trelawny meets a one-legged man, Long John Silver, who tricks Trelawny into giving information about their trip and the map. The one-legged man whistles and summons an experienced but menacing crew of seamen: Killigrew the Kind, Dick the Dandy, Joan the Goat, Israel Hands, Black Cat and George Badger. Oblivious to the danger, Trelawny hires them all.

17 Treasure Island − Learning G uide Adaptation Details & Plot Synopsis

Scene Eleven (0:35:06): The crew board the ship and sing another shanty.

Scene Twelve (0:37:27): In the kitchen, Jim meets Long John Silver and his Parrot, Flint. She notices he has one leg, but he calms her fears and they become friends.

Scene Thirteen (0:42:30): A large storm hits the Hispaniola, delighting Silver, who appears to have the ability to command it to cease.

Scene Fourteen (0:43:50): Jim and Silver observe the stars together, with Silver teaching her how to navigate via astronomy. Jim confesses Silver has become her best friend.

Scene Fifteen (0:47:55): That night Silver’s sailors take several of the other seamen hostage, interrogating them on the location of Flint’s Fist. Jim hides in a barrel and overhears that Silver was only befriending her to acquire the map. Silver and the sailors were pirates on the Walrus and Silver murdered Captain Flint in his sleep to take the treasure for himself, but Black Dog escaped with the map. The Hispaniola arrives at Treasure Island.

Scene Sixteen (0:52:25): Trelawny, Livesey, Smollett and Jim discuss what to do. Smollett wants to turn back, recognising Silver as too dangerous. Jim insists she keep the map as Silver trusts her. They make a plan to strand Silver and his crew on the island until they starve to death.

Scene Seventeen (0:54:29): While placing the Walrus crew into the jolly boat, Jim lets slip that she knows Silver has previously been on the island. He and his crew attack the others. In order to save Trelawny, Jim reveals she has the map. Parrot Flint steals it from her. As she rushes to retrieve it Silver orders Killigrew to shoot her. Blackout.

Interval

18 Treasure Island − Learning G uide Adaptation Details & Plot Synopsis

Act Two, Scene One (0:57:44): Jim managed to escape with the map. The crew arrive on the Island with Trelawny and the rest of the crew captive. They are interrogated for the map’s coordinates but are either ignorant or refuse. Silver orders them to be left out in the sweltering sun to ‘bake’. Killigrew and Black Cat are ordered to guard them, but they become distracted by drinking.

Scene Two (1:01:41): At another location on the island, Jim swims ashore. She managed to save the map but there’s now a hole in the centre. Ben Gunn, a lunatic man, suddenly appears. He reveals he was the cabin boy on the Walrus given the task of writing the clues to the location of the treasure before being betrayed by Silver. Jim and Ben make a pact to work together to defeat Silver.

Scene Three (1:07:50): Back with the others, the guards have fallen into a drunken stupor. The Hispaniola crew manage to escape before Silver and his pirates return. In a fury Silver kills Killigrew, and the crew fearfully swear allegiance to him.

Scene Four (1:12:19): The Hispaniola crew set up a stockade on another part of the island. Jim and Ben enter and the crew resolve to find the treasure. Trelawny

19 Treasure Island − Learning G uide Adaptation Details & Plot Synopsis

ill-advisedly hoists a British flag, alerting the Walrus crew to their location and Red Ruth is killed. Jim and Ben hide as Silver enters, pretending to surrender. He gives them until the morning to hand over Jim. Smollett stands up to him and is shot dead.

Scene Five (1:18:00): Alone, Ben resolves to be brave and help take down Silver.

Scene Six (1:19:15): Jim returns to the Hispaniola, manages to fight off Israel Hands, and sails it round the island and help the others.

Scene Seven (1:23:10): She arrives at the Hispaniola crew’s camp only to be ambushed by Silver, who tells Jim the others have deserted her. Desolated, Jim vows to instead be a pirate and begins helping them find the treasure. Following the clues they find a hole in the ground and the crew climb in.

Scene Eight (1:29:31): On the surface, Silver conspires with Jim to kill the others and take the treasure for themselves. Alone, Jim remembers the lessons of honesty Grandma taught her and resolves to not be a pirate.

Scene Nine (1:31:45): Underground, the crew fail to find treasure. Jim confronts Silver to arrest him, but he disarms her. Just as he is about to shoot her, the voice of Trelawny pretending to be Captain Flint calls out, naming the crew one by one to seize Silver. Terrified, they oblige. Ben suddenly appears as a “ghost”, leading them away to the "treasure". The Hispaniola crew appear and Ben re-enters, telling them the treasure is not under the island but inside it.

Inside the tunnels, the Walrus crew stab the island looking for the riches. The island cracks and the treasure crushes the pirates. The Hispaniola crew gather the gold and board the ship home.

Scene Ten (1:39:00): Jim arrives back home with Ben Gunn. Jim reflects that they now have food and gold, but her nightmares about the island still haunt her dreams.

The End

20 Treasure Island − Learning Guide

Find out more

Read

The Rehearsal Insights Pack, featuring notes from the rehearsal room written by Staff Director Sam Caird.

Watch

Staging Treasure Island

Adapting novels for the stage - dramatists including Frankenstein playwright Nick Dear, Jane Eyre director Sally Cookson and playwright Patrick Marber discuss the challenges of adapting novels for the stage.

Explore

The National Theatre’s digital exhibitions on Google Arts & Culture, including Staging Children’s Stories at the National Theatre

More materials relating to the production including the costume bible, costume designs, prompt scripts, programme, stage management reports and more are held at the National Theatre Archive, which is free to visit. Find out more here: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/archive

21 Treasure Island − Learning Guide

Find out more

Suggestions for Further Activity

Other adaptations of novels such as Peter Pan and Jane Eyre would be appropriate plays with which to compare this production, particularly in the use of set. The first-person narration of Treasure Island compares with the lack of narration in Peter Pan is also a good area of focus – what directorial choices must be made to ensure that the audience sees the story from the intended viewpoint?

Lizzie Clachan has designed several productions for the National Theatre. Research the other productions. What similarities and differences can you see? Clachan also worked with Polly Findlay on another productions National Theatre production, Rutherford and Son. Older audiences may also like to compare this design with her design for the Young Vic’s Yerma (also available on the NT Collection).

John Tams composed songs for War Horse as well as Treasure Island. The recorded soundtrack of War Horse is commercially available. Listen to that soundtrack and consider the role of music and song in both of these productions. You could also investigate the sound designer Dan Jones who has worked on a number of productions at the National Theatre.

We hope that you have enjoyed exploring Treasure Island. Don't forget that there are many more fantastic productions to explore as part of the NT Collection. We hope that watching this recorded production has made you feel inspired to see and make live theatre. Why not find out what’s happening at your local theatre and how you can get involved?

This guide to support your viewing of the production was compiled by Teacher and Arts Education Consultant Susie Ferguson.

If you have any comments or feedback on our resources please contact us: [email protected]

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