Adventure Comes Ashore in STC’s Treasure Island

From pirate parrots squawking to dramatic lighting and heartfelt death scenes, it felt like Stuyvesant Theater Community (STC)’s winter drama Treasure Island could do no wrong. Each actor, from the leads to the ensemble, brought their all, adding both a lot of heart to the performance and a fresh comedic aspect that is often missing from a drama. The set was detailed and added to the story, not to mention the lights and sound department with their creative flourishes to add to scenes and timely cues exactly when the story needed them.  

The play follows Jim Hawkins (senior Ada Gordon), a young kid whose life is turned upside down after an old sea captain, Billy Bones (junior Jayden Mei), dies in his grandmother’s saloon and leaves him with a treasure map of Hispaniola. The regulars of the saloon, Squire Trelawney (freshman Shai Arbisser) and Dr. Livesey (senior Lily Wagman), put together a crew of questionable misfits, and they all venture out into the open ocean on a treasure-hunting voyage. They send Jim to work in the ship’s kitchen with the cook, Long John Silver (senior William Lake), and they quickly become close friends, which proves to be disastrous by the end of the play.

Ada Gordon did not disappoint with her second lead role in an STC production. Her charismatic nature drew the audience in and made them feel for her when her character was alone in the story. It was a tall order for her to play the heart of the show and spend almost every second of the play on stage, but she took it in stride. She wasn’t the only impressive performance, though: William Lake was so charming and lovable for the first act that when his character Long John Silver betrayed Jim, it was a betrayal to the audience as well. There was always something off about Silver, but the care he took towards Jim persuaded the audience to overlook that aspect until it was impossible to avoid, and made the fight scenes between the pair even more powerful. 

Those fight scenes added a lot to the intensity of the production because of how well-choreographed they were, with believable intention behind their actions and impressive bravado. Overall, the staging was one of the highlights of the performance because of Mariya Markova’s creative directing. Each scene had layered staging, allowed for by the intricate set pieces, and even made use of the pit (the area under the stage generally designated for the band), a genius idea that played very well to audiences. These moments when actors were hidden either behind curtains, backstage, or in the pit built a sense of mystery and kept audiences captivated. That captivation remained even throughout the moments that, in most STC productions, tend to stay silent and bland: transitions. Often during set changes, the audience is left to their own devices, but in this show, STC utilized either the cast moving set pieces along with dialogue, or Richard He accompanying himself on the fiddle, singing jolly pirate jigs, to entertain during these otherwise dull moments. 

A large portion of the show was spent on a ship en route to their treasure island. The set piece of the ship was one of the most expansive sets seen in recent STC productions. It towered over the audience and complemented the staging tremendously. The mood of the ship was also well characterized by the lighting production, which was unique and well-timed throughout. Lights and sound were always in sync with each other, and the cues were seamless, keeping the audience in the scene at all times. Furthermore, they utilized lights and sound to make the story more alive, rather than just as production necessities. They created turbulent waves and storms through bright, strobe light sequences and loud sounds of waves crashing around the characters. Even in calmer moments, like an interaction early on in the story between Jim and Long John Silver, where they bonded over the night sky, lighting added to the emotional aspect. In this scene particularly, they conveyed the feeling of calm trust between the two with bright stars in the background and an almost completely dark stage, save for a spotlight on them. 

It was obvious that a lot of care was taken when thinking about the details for each scene, and it came across really well in the final product. The attention to detail was also clear through the use of props, which were all charming and fit well with one another and the scene around them. Paper mache skulls, laid under expansive set pieces of trees; a beautiful faux parrot echoing the words of the villain; and a dismembered hand that, when thrown across the stage, added comedic emphasis to what otherwise could’ve been a more bland scene, were just some of the best props used in the show. 

At times, however, the comedic aspects could be a little cheesy or confusing for the audience. Specifically, they played around a lot with the gender perception of Jim, who in the original play is a boy, but in this adaptation is a girl who many think is a boy, which proved to be confusing for audiences. They needed to either expand on that idea of gender identity with the character or remove it; they often used it as an interjection, and it ended up being unclear whether it was meant to be comedic or taken seriously.

Generally, Treasure Island was an incredibly well-rounded show. It was well played by all actors, creative in its execution, and left nothing to be desired in set design, which made for an incredibly fun experience for the audience.