Long Joan Silver is a full length comedy commissioned by YouthPLAYS, who asked me for a version of Treasure Island for their catalog of plays suitable for High Schools and TYA productions.
Why this play?
I loved Treasure Island growing up - my mother read it to me, and as soon as my kid was old enough, I read it to them... but turning the book into a play reveals a major failing: a lack of roles for women. In the original book there's only one woman, and she doesn't even have a name. I've seen the odd production that shoe-horns in a female pirate, (cough, cough Ken Ludwig, cough) but none that actually address the subject. This one does. The themes of discrimination and privilege that are background in the book are brought to the forefront in Long Joan Silver. At the Los Angeles production, a girl of about six years old came up to Long Joan herself (Bree Pavey) after the show and said "Girls can be pirates too, because they're the tougherest!" That was when I knew the play worked the way I wanted it to!
The West Coast premiere at Loft Ensemble Theatre, Los Angeles, February 2017.
Photo by Shane Tometich.
The play has roles for a large cast of actors, and although some of the characters are by necessity smaller roles, I made it a point that every actor either gets a chance to further the plot, or at least has a joke and can get a laugh just for themselves!
The play keeps the action of the original, but it does get silly funny, with mad rat-eating, cheese obsessed Jen Gunn arguing over the going price of trading the treasure for a piece of Parmigiano - Is it organic? - to Dr. Livesy dressing up as a one legged woman to try and frighten Cap'n Sally Bones.
Okay, it may not be the book exactly... but it's the book funnier!
The Germantown Community Theatre production, Germantown, TN 2022.
The Aberdour Youth Players in Scotland, 2014.
Rave reviews and a nomination for Outstanding Play!
Loft Ensemble's production was nominated for Outstanding Play by the 2017 Valley Theatre Awards.
Tracey Paleo of Gia on the Move wrote: "the literary classic coming-of-age story is transmuted into an incredibly entertaining modern farce, ripe with perfectly inserted and delivered one-liners, silly gags that work in every pause for a laugh, and a swift sailing narrative that stays engaging throughout."
Review by Tracey Paleo.
David MacDowell Blue of Night-Tinted Glasses called it: "a rollicking good time on a startling number of levels".
Review by David MacDowell Blue.
Sample Dialogue...
The West Coast premiere, Loft Ensemble Theatre, Los Angeles, February 2017.
L to R: Ilona Concetta Castro, Tony Williams, Bree Pavey, Mitch Rosander, Thomas C. Lebow
Photo by Shane Tometich.
From the publisher's website:
The classic adventure story of buried treasure - and the original one-legged pirate with a parrot - gets a timely makeover, combining offbeat farce, sight gags and horrendous puns with a dramatic core that explores discrimination, privilege and greed. Unlike in Robert Louis Stevenson's book, where only one unnamed character is female, women are front and center as Long Joan Silver's young Jim Hawkins comes of age during the fateful voyage of the Hispaniola and the clash between an all-female pirate crew and Squire Trelawney, Doctor Livesey and the domineering Captain Smollett.
