Aarrr, Jim lad! Treasure Island, a swashbuckling stage adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale of pirates, parrots and doubloons, bursts onto the Highbury stage for Christmas and New Year. Not a panto but still a ‘classic Christmas show full of music and dance to entertain the whole family’, Phil Willmott’s play will be on at the Sheffield Road theatre from December 22 to January 2. The story follows Jim Hawkins (Niko Adilypour) after he comes across a treasure map. He sets out with his friends Lady Trelawney (Danni Bentley), Miss Livesey (Jess Ingram) and Captain Smollet (John Brennan) to find the loot. They are followed on their journey by Long John Silver (Peter Cooley) and his pirates, who go all out in their attempts to steal the treasure, but good outwits bad in the end, and the adventure ends happily. This is the third show Tony Rogers has directed at Highbury Theatre Centre on Sheffield Road, Boldmere, and he promises that the audience won’t be disappointed. Although not a pantomime, it still has some panto elements in it to involve all the children. There is also a puppet parrot called Captain Flint, operated by both Elizabeth Lycett and Luke Vernon over the 10 performances. Tony says: “I’ve loved being able to direct the Christmas show again. The cast have worked really hard at creating some great characters and pirates, and the whole evening promises to be enormous fun. “You are always learning both as a director and an actor, and this show has a different feel to last year’s pantomime!” Niko Adilypour, Danni Bentley and Elizabeth Lycett are all members of the Highbury Youth Theatre. Elizabeth is Head Flautist in a concert band. Danni played ‘Giovanna’, one of the lead female parts in ‘Cruisin’, the Youth Theatre’s last production. Peter Cooley played the Wizard in ‘The Scatterbrained Scarecrow’ at Christmas in 2007, and was in ‘A Touch of Danger’ last year. Tony says that the parrot has not appeared on stage before, ‘but he is very happy to be there, and is really good fun to watch!’ Performances are as follows: matinees, 2.30pm, December 27, 28, 29, 30, January 2; evenings, 7.30pm, December 22, 23, 29, 30 and January 2. Tickets are priced at £10 (adults), £9 (concs) and £7 (children). | 
