10 Feb 2025
Last week nearly 700 members of the Braunton Academy community came to watch the National Theatre’s adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Treasure Island’. With a cast of more than 70 students from all age ranges in the school, audiences were treated to a fast-paced, magical and humorous production full of trap doors, hoisted sails and subterranean adventures.
Lead brilliantly by Year 9 student Ava as a magnetic Jim Hawkins, the story unfolded at a gallop taking us from the Admiral Benbow Inn, to Bristol and on to the treacherous high seas, encountering a huge array of comic and cutthroat characters. Of the many standout performances, Josh as Captain Silver struck the right balance between menace and mystery, as did Theo’s character ‘Grey’, delighting audiences with his deadpan humour. The electric Jonah as Ben Gunn emerging from underneath the stage, covered in mud, delivered an electric performance to delight and enthral in equal measure. Tyler and Rowan captured the danger of pirates to the front row with brawling pirates in a fight sequence to be glad you were not part of! Accompanied by Mr Thomas’ atmospheric music, the chorus of Island Spirits set the tone for effectively creating the menace of the island to open the second act.
The set for this production was very ambitious with trap doors and ‘sails’ that spanned the height of the Isaac Hall to give the production the scope and feeling of being ‘on board ship’. Mr Magson and the site team spent hours enabling these effects, and Mr Carroll, the cast and crew were extremely grateful for the hours of work put into these set elements. We were also extremely grateful to Jon Rodney-Jones and Shannon Ridd for providing some magnificent props, a ship’s wheel, a pirate leg among other key pieces.
The cast worked tirelessly for many rehearsals, weekends, and finally for three utterly spectacular performances. It takes a huge amount of work from all of those involved and many staff gave up their time to help sell tickets and provide refreshments.
Thank you for supporting us through the raffle, forming the audience, or taking part. It was a huge success, and we were blown away with generous donations which once again helps to support our growing fund for lighting and stage equipment.
Many thanks - Expressive Arts Team.