” Billon’s adaptation, true to the sensibility of the original, reveals a solid narrative momentum and a gift for peppering proceedings with the kind of big set-piece moments that children will adore. …
This is not a sanitized version of the novel. Horror, violence and personal loss will stalk the decks when Jim and his friends set sail in search of treasure. Bruce Hunter’s Billy Bones is a doom-haunted old boozer who dies early on. As that sinister villain, Blind Pew, Deirdre Gillard-Rowlings overcomes her unorthodox casting to be genuinely scary…
The pleasures afforded by the festival’s latest take on Treasure Island are real and legitimate.”