Treasure Island is Le Navet Bete’s seventh collaboration with one of UK theatre’s leading comedy directors and writers John Nicholson. Image credit: Matt Austin
A pirate’s life for me
As Bristol Old Vic prepares to welcome Treasure Island back to its stage this month, we sit down with the theatre’s Heritage Participation Producer, Harriet Wilson, who takes us back through the archives and explains why Bristol audiences have always favoured maritime fiction...
A
s the smoke clears and the dust settles, Bristol Old Vic not only seems to have successfully weathered the Covid storm but is standing taller than ever. As it looks forward to welcoming its new artistic director, Nancy Medina, in Spring 2023 – the first woman to be appointed to the prestigious role – a new day is certainly dawning at the theatre. With a real sense of anticipation filling the auditorium, Bristol Old Vic is preparing to welcome back this month a beloved Bristolian tale – a production that always seems to arrive at times of great change, inadvertently marking a new beginning. Performed with a cast of four in their own inimitable style, the multi-award-winning physical comedy company, Le Navet Bete, will bring Robert Louis Stevenson’s legendary Treasure Island to Bristol audiences from 19–30 July. Laced with a whole host of contemporary comedic twists, including an unusual motley crew of pirates, a parrot called Alexa (straight from the Amazon), and a certain white bearded fish finger tycoon, it’s set to be a Treasure Island that’s never been seen before. Intrigued by the timing of the production, we sit down with Heritage Participation Producer, Harriet Wilson, to look back 14 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE
|
JULY 2022
|
No 212
through the history of the oldest continuously-working theatre in the English speaking world; delve into the newly-digitised archives of previous productions; and discover why Bristol audiences have always had a taste for nautical tales. “Treasure Island has always been associated with rebirth at the theatre,” Harriet begins. “The most important production of Treasure Island was in the winter of 1946. This was a really important period for Bristol Old Vic. The theatre went bankrupt in 1943 and was sold off at auction for £10,500 to the owner of a metal company, who was going to turn it into a warehouse. However, in the wake of the public outcry that followed his decision, he agreed to hold it in a trust if the people of Bristol could raise enough money to save it. “If this was a Hollywood story, I would tell you that the local people managed to do it, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. It’s important to clarify that this was during the Bristol blitz, so tens of thousands of people didn’t even have homes. You can understand why they couldn’t raise the money. “Instead, the precursor to the Arts Council, the wartime Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA) agreed to save the theatre. They established an offshoot of the London Old Vic
Photo by Desmond Tripp Image courtesy of University of Bristol Theatre Collection
BRISTOL OLD VIC v3.qxp_Layout 2 22/06/2022 16:22 Page 1
