It is with enormous pleasure that I get to indulge myself directing Treasure Island, the most wonderful tale of pirates and treasure. As Ian Bannerman adapts this much-prized story to our needs, let us take you all out to sea, capturing your imagination and bringing the book to life as only the Cumnor Players can.

I am really excited to be working with the Cumnor Players again on this exciting adventure with such a fantastic and dedicated team. I started with the very serious Darke Years production in 2012 and ran a couple of children’s theatre workshops in between, finally joining an all-star cast on stage for Alice (I loved being the big bad queen.)

And here I am again - where actually I intend to continue with my Queen of Hearts persona as Director….sshhh - I won’t tell anyone if you don’t!

So I hope you will join me for a good 'ole swash-buckling time. You can expect bad baddies, good goodies, plots on top of plots and of course treats and, most importantly, treasures!

Only 132 years since the first publication of Treasure Island and I think Ian Bannerman has successfully perfected it! No disrespect to Robert Louis Stephenson, but he left out some key characters, such as a cross-dressing pirates, a wonderfully libidinous dame, some cheeky rats, mermaids, and where was the love interest? The brief to Ian was complex, lots of jokes, lots of innuendo and a fast paced action thriller to boot. Of course, no show is ever really complete without some 'get up and dance in the aisle' hits and this year we have tried to achieve the whole package.

 

This has been a wonderful journey for everyone involved, we have spent many hours in rehearsal understanding the characters and their relationships. we have spent many more hours in fits of giggles with the sole aim to entertain you and have a jolly good time while doing it.

 

This production, as with all of the Cumnor Players productions, is put on by a team of dedicated and talented volunteers who all have very busy day jobs and yet still manage to bring together a professional performance in their "spare" time. It is such a pleasure working with such an amazing group of people and I'm sure this is what draws the creative team back together year on year.

 

So sit back and allow yourself to be entertained by (the newly improved) Treasure Island, we hope you enjoy the performance as much as we enjoyed making it....

 Erika Harris

Director 2015