The Wykehamist Treasure Island
“ D-E-P-P-O-S-S-E-D”
Drunkenness, lechery, Shakespeare; QEII was on familiar ground. This year’ s school play was Treasure Island, Ken Ludwig’ s adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’ s classic tale. The story is a familiar favourite – our protagonist Jim Hawkins( played by Alfie Downey,( K, 2024-)) is swept up into an adventure spanning Bristol to Skeleton Island. His compatriots, the eccentric, hilarious and energetic Squire Trelawney( Harry Latimer,( Coll:, 2020-)), the formal Captain Smollett( Hugo Dunfield- Prayero( E, 2021-)), the eternally ponderous Dr. Livesey( Edwin Fletcher( E, 2020-)), and the enigmatic Long John Silver( Yasser Adhair,( F, 2020-)), face off against treacherous pirates in a battle for the late Captain Flint’ s( George Hewett( K, 2020-)) treasure horde.
Treasure Island, for all its strengths, is a very long play. The performances, including the interval, usually lasted over two hours; the actors, therefore, needed to bring constant energy to their performance – and that they did. Every night was bursting with recognisably genuine enthusiasm from the cast, with a brilliant set created by Mr Cunio and a great backstage team: Max Antoniou( G, 2020-), Anna Matthews( G, 2024-), Annabelle Brunt( D, 2023-), and Orson Shivji( G, 2023-), alongside Ottilie Fergusson( K, 2024-), Cosmo Clifton( F, 2024-), and Brent Yee( G 2023-) in the lightning and sound box. They were also splendid, even if the parrot did squawk a bit too much( also, how does a wooden ship have a foghorn?). The makeup, done by AML’ s make-up Soc, and SPK’ s costumes, were also excellent; Justice Death’ s( Maya Evdokimova( H, 2024-)) gashes were particularly striking.
Each night began with Monsieur Fondain in a pirate outfit giving a piratethemed safety announcement( consistently, the declaration that got the loudest reaction from the audience was his threat to steal away our‘ glowing rectangles’). After that, we were in the hands of the protagonist Jim Hawkins, a boy considerably taller than both his parents. Alfie brought a constantly engaging enthusiasm to his performance, easily and fluidly switching between speaking to the cast and to the audience – and even though the first section of the play saw Alfie almost always enthusiastic and grinning, in later sections, he displayed the talent required
22 to convincingly perform a wide range of emotions. Whilst Alfie took centre stage for most of the play, during the beginning section, our attention was almost entirely taken by Billy Bones( Max Henderson( G, 2024-)), who brought with him not only some of the best acting recently seen in QEII, but also a deliciously thick rhotic accent. His drunkenness brought him to an early grave, but we were left wanting more.
Whilst the prologue to the play included the pirates, our first real experience of them came after Billy’ s death. Blind Pew( Conor O’ Sullivan( B, 2023-)) proved elegantly sinister, even if he didn’ t have much stage time either, owing to his untimely death at the hands of the local militia. After our introduction to Squire Trelawney and the decision to go after Captain Flint’ s treasure, we found ourselves in Bristol, where we met the second leading actor: the inscrutable Long John Silver. Yasser’ s superb performance, once his betrayal was made clear, did not fail to keep us guessing – even right at the very end, though Jim may have grown to trust him, we had not. But if anything, that only contributed to his easily being the most interesting character in the play, even if he did express a dislike for the piano( and miss the potato throw two out of three nights).
To oddly grandiose music, the Hispaniola set sail, and from then on, the play slid into its more dramatic phase. Within minutes, the pirates, disguised as the crew, mutinied; after a brief stand-off, Jim and his compatriots escaped, and the interval came. The parents were treated to rum, and we were treated to a strange juice of an unknowable variety, and a bizarre biscuit; meanwhile, the cast feasted on fizzy drinks, crisps, and cupcakes.
The second half began with our very own arts editor behaving like a caveman. Ben Gunn( Rishi Bhardwaj( E, 2020-)) was one of the more bemusing characters in the play; every action committed, whether it be singing sea shanties off-stage, or beheading Justice Death, was motivated by his great love of cheese, and Jim’ s promise that he would deliver some to him. In a way, it was Ben who set the scene for the second act. The Vietnam-esque feel to the final confrontation between the pirates and the‘ ghost of Captain Flint’ was created by Ben