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Pirates Return to the Streets of Bristol

Following on from their success with Swallows and Amazons last Christmas, Bristol Old Vic is to embark on another ambitious stage adaptation of a literary classic – Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, and this time the company are taking the action out onto the streets! Harking back 300 years, to a time when Bristol was the home of pirates, buried treasure and adventures on the high seas, this summer BOV will bring the city an epic adventure of treasure maps, far away islands and that one-legged man with a parrot on his shoulder!.

Treasure Island will be performed in a specially constructed outdoor theatre for up to 500 people with the theatre façade as a backdrop, just yards from The Llandoger Trow pub, which, legend has it, was Stevenson’s inspiration for the Admiral Benbow and where he wrote part of the famous tale.

This is the first time a major Bristol Old Vic production has ventured out onto King Street. Treasure Island forms part of a series of projects for Bristol which the company is undertaking in 2011 and 2012, as the Georgian theatre, Paintshop and backstage areas are being refurbished. Throughout the year, the company is collaborating with new and existing partners to stage theatre across the city. Treasure Island is the flagship production of Bristol Old Vic’s summer season and sees the company working with local artists to devise this thrilling new version of a classic tale.

- by Simon Cole

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