The Sedona International Film Festival is proud to team up with the National Theatre of London for the launch of National Theatre At Home, an initiative designed to continue to engage audiences in their homes during this period of confinement. This week’s free National Theatre of London’s virtual screening is Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” from the company’s 2014 season. It will stream through Wednesday, April 22.
The National Theatre will be releasing one back catalogue National Theatre Live title per week across April and May on the National Theatre YouTube channel. These titles will be free to stream, and be available for one week only.
The National Theatre has tried to prioritize titles that have benefitted from great theatrical success already.
“In these unprecedented times, we are having to look at new and creative ways to reach audiences as an organization…” The National Theatre wrote in a press release. “…but none of this diminishes our commitment to live theatre or event cinema and our ambition is always to grow the profile and reach of National Theatre Live, continuing to offer the highest quality content in the most dynamic way.”
“Treasure Island,” Stevenson’s story of murder, money and mutiny, is brought to life in a thrilling new stage adaptation by Bryony Lavery, broadcast live from the at the National Theatre’s Olivier Theatre.
It’s a dark, stormy night. The stars are out. Jim, the inn-keeper’s granddaughter, opens the door to a terrifying stranger. At the old sailor’s feet sits a huge sea-chest, full of secrets. Jim invites him in — and her dangerous voyage begins.
Stevenson, the Scottish author of the “Treasure Island,” novel, began to tell one of the most gripping adventure stories ever written to entertain his stepson. It went on to be serialized in a children’s magazine, and was first published as a book in 1883.
Stevenson’s other books include “Kidnapped” and “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,” but Treasure Island was perhaps the most iconic, and has been dramatized on stage, television and film. Some of the things that Stevenson imagined have become part of popular culture and what we now think of as ‘traditional’ pirate imagery. The dreaded ‘Black Spot,’ the treasure map and the buried treasure all first appeared in his book, though sailors did often have parrots as pets, and primitive surgery on board meant that wooden legs were not unknown among real pirates.
“Treasure Island” is garnering raves from critics and audiences around the world, including 4- and 5-star reviews from every major publication in England.