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There’s piracy on the high seas this summer – well, on the cobbles of King Street anyway – as Bristol Old Vic takes to the open air for an all-new production of rollicking adventure yarn ‘Treasure Island’. Tom Phillips swashes his buckle.

It’s early June and in a not-exactly-tropical rehearsal room in what was, until very recently, a run-down warehouse in the docks, the cast of Bristol Old Vic’s ‘Treasure Island’, its director and dramaturg are sitting in a circle reading aloud from Robert Louis Stevenson’s original tale of maps, mutiny and, of course, buried treasure. Musical instruments, wooden boxes and other ad hoc props lie around, while off to one side there’s something which looks like it comes from ‘Michael Bentine’s Potty Time’ (Google it if you’re under 40): a model of the multi-layered, rigging-bestrewn set for what promises to be the summer’s most spectacular piece of outdoor theatre.

“We’re in the very early stages at the moment,” says director Sally Cookson as the cast breaks for tea on what is, in fact, only their fourth day of rehearsal. Sally, you might recall, has been responsible for some of BOV’s most popular family theatre outings of recent years, including ‘Boing!’ and ‘Papa Please Get The Moon With Me’, not to mention Travelling Light’s ‘Bob, The Man On The Moon’ and the splendid ‘Ali Baba...’ at the Tobacco Factory. ‘Treasure Island’, though, is a whole new ball game after those more intimate shows. “Being outside has influenced the whole style of performing. You can’t think of the show as being a piece of naturalistic storytelling: you have to have an epic, very physical style. And although the language of the book is very vivid and very beautiful – and we don’t want to lose that – ‘Treasure Island’ is an adventure story. It goes at a hundred miles an hour – like a Hollywood blockbuster – and that’s an important part of its appeal... When it comes to pirates, too, you have to offer the audience what they expect – you have to live up to the expectations created by the book.”

With only four weeks to rehearse, you might think that the script would have been written months ago. Not a bit of it. Things got underway with a research and development session back in March where Sally, music maestro Benji Bower (see panel), designer Phil Eddolls, dramaturg Mike Akers and some of the cast knocked a few ideas around, but with less than a month to go until the first preview, Sally admits that their “skeleton framework” of characters, scenes and key events “still has big holes in it”. There will be a script at some point, but the bulk of the show will emerge as rehearsals progress, with Mike Akers scribbling down dialogue and shaping scenes according to what happens day by day. “I’ve got a very talented team of actor-devisers,” says Sally. “These are strong personalities who work with ideas and are a huge part of the project. Making the show this way, though, is a very time-consuming process. We read chapters aloud – as you saw us doing just then – and identify the main events in each scene. It’s a slow but very rewarding way of working: creating a unique piece of entertainment for outdoors. There are still lots of unknowns – but there’s also a lot of adrenaline.”

Cast-wise, the seven-strong ensemble features quite a few familiar faces. Howard Coggins and Craig Edwards are both well-known for their regular showings round these parts (notably, together, in ‘Around The World In Eighty Days’ at BOV); Saikat Ahmed starred as the eponymous Ali in Sally’s ‘Ali Baba’ at the Tob Fac; Zara Ramm most recently appeared in the lauded production of ‘The Nutcracker’ at the egg; while Kneehigh stalwart Tristan Sturrock’s one-man show ‘Frankenspine’ at BOV scored a four-star “exemplary stuff” rave from Venue.

Sturrock, in fact, has the plum role here: double-crossing skulduggery-monger extraordinaire Long John Silver. Which might seem like a surprising piece of casting to anyone who’s been previously won over by Sturrock’s seemingly imperturbable amiability. “We’re telling our own version of the story and we’re trying not to look at previous images of Long John Silver, like Robert Newton’s in the 50s film,” says Sally. “Silver is the wiliest of villains but he’s also a very charming villain and I was keen to find someone who comes across like that. Yes, Tristan couldn’t be more charming – but he also has a steely power as an actor: he can switch from playing a charmer to ‘don’t mess with me’ – and that’s the essence of what that character needs.”

Joining Sturrock and the other locally sourced performers are BOV debutant Ian Harris and, in the pivotal role of Jim Hawkins, the youthful Jonny Weldon. “Jonny’s 17 and turns 18 towards the end of the run,” adds Sally. “He’ll be literally coming of age on stage, and ‘Treasure Island’ is very much a coming-of-age story: Jim grows from being a young boy into a man over the course of his adventures.”

One challenge for any adaptation of ‘Treasure Island’ is that the story traverses the ocean from Bristol (Silver’s pub The Spyglass was reputedly inspired by The Hole in the Wall just off Queen Square) to the eponymous booty-full isle. Which is where Phil Eddolls’s remarkable set comes in. Spreading across the whole facade of the Old Vic, it promises to be one of the stars of the show in its own right, turning from seadog-littered inn to fully rigged ship to palm-strewn tropical island and, crucially, bringing the audience into the heart of the action. “The book takes you into an imaginary world full of danger and intrigue, and we want the audience to use their imagination with us on the story, creating that whole world,” adds Sally, as the cast return from their tea break to discuss the likely trajectory of cannonballs and work out how Silver’s mutineers might attack the island’s stockade. “The story too is full of different emotions: it draws you in and then throws you around all the over the place – and we’re really trying to get that. To take the audience with us on Jim’s emotional journey so that they’re not sitting there watching just another piece of theatre.”

Sounds appealing

Music is an integral part of BOV’s ‘Treasure Island’ and providing it will be one of director Sally Cookson’s long-time collaborators, Benji Bower. “There’s music all the way through, in the form of an underscore, but also with songs and live instrumentation,” he says. “As it’s an outdoor project, we’ve gone for really big instruments – like marching drums and timpani. We’re also experimenting with a pipe organ, using reclaimed church organ pipes, installing them on the set and then feeding air through them to create crazy soundscapes.”

Don’t, though, expect too much in the way of rollicking sea shanties. “We wanted to get away from traditional ‘pirate music’,” says Benji. “I have written a shanty, but for the underscore I’ve taken inspiration from Bernard Hermann, who did the soundtracks for Alfred Hitchcock, while for the live ensembles there’s a more melancholy gypsy feel. I’m also slipping in a tilt to the Bristol Sound because of the book’s connections to the city – but it’s not going to be dubstep or anything. I’m just really interested in exploring what works on stage.”

Gong show

While ‘Treasure Island’ takes shape in Bristol, BOV artistic director Tom Morris has been taking Broadway by storm. The New York production of ‘War Horse’ – the show he originally developed at the National Theatre Studio before transferring to the West End – opened earlier this year and picked up a mighty six Tony Awards in June – including Best Play and Best Director for Morris and co-director Marianne Elliott. “This makes me especially proud of everything we are trying to do in Bristol, from the fantastic ensemble spirit of the Young Company to the astonishing artists who are pushing the rules of theatre making in Bristol Ferment; from the brilliant team who worked with me on ‘Swallows and Amazons’, now set to tour nationally, to the wildly gifted team currently rehearsing ‘Treasure Island’,” said Morris after the ceremony, underlining the important role publicly subsidised theatre played in getting ‘War Horse’ off the ground and enabling it to become one of Britain’s most successful theatrical exports for decades.

TREASURE ISLAND OUTSIDE BRISTOL OLD VIC, KING STREET, BRISTOL, FROM THUR 7 JULY-FRI 26 AUG. FOR REVIEW, CLICK HERE.

Copyright Tom Phillips 2011