a historical musical
Robert Louis Stevenson was born in 1850 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He suffered from tuberculosis since birth, and so spent a great part of his childhood in bed, where he listened to pirate stories told by his father, an important builder of lighthouses. Thomas Stevenson imagined a similar career for his son and was therefore very disappointed when Louis decided to become a writer.
The intergenerational disputes and misunderstandings between father and son are one of the main storylines of a new musical whose world premiere will take place at our theatre. The German authors, Dennis Martin and Christoph Jilo, are already known here thanks to their successful musical Pope Joan. In their new production, they combine the real life of the writer with the plot of his most famous book, Treasure Island. The romanticized world of pirates, the endless sea, impregnable ships, desert islands and buried treasure intermingle with the realistic problems of a young man who sets out to fulfil his dream despite his father’s wishes, leaving for Paris to find not only the topic for his first work in that centre of unrestrained bohemian life, but also his true love, Fanny Osbourne. Her son Lloyd is not only a young friend for Louis, but also his first reader and a source of inspiration for his new book about pirates. Young Lloyd becomes Jim Hawkins in the fictitious story, and other real life characters also come to life in the book as the crew of the famous Hispaniola, one-legged Long John Silver and crazy Ben Gunn. The spectators will see how everything turns out this time with the famous treasure of Captain Flint, as well as the life story of Robert Louis Stevenson himself, in this adventurous musical full of beautiful fantasy at the Drama Theatre.
