Well, shiver my timbers! It appears that the Captain Birdseye school of theatre is alive and well. Scotland's Wee Stories has a good reputation and won last year's Theatrical Management Association award for best children's show with Arthur, the Story of a King. It beat some stunning and radical children's shows, so I can only assume that this two-man offering is an aberration.
It is like a bizarre throwback to the children's theatre of 20 years ago. It passes the time; it is perfectly good entertainment, of the kind regularly offered on Saturday morning children's TV; and it has all the wee and fart jokes that so tickle an eight-year-old's fancy. But it gets nowhere near the dark heart of this boy's own adventure, in which innocence is lost and maturity won - but at a price. After all, finding yourself amid cut-throat pirates is both spine-tinglingly exciting and spine-tinglingly frightening. But not here, it isn't - it is just one long joke.
More regrettably, the show doesn't even tell the story particularly well. It is more Chuckle Brothers than Robert Louis Stevenson. The exchanges often go like this: "Whatever you do, don't mention the treasure." "Who's Trevor?" After two hours of this kind of humour and people wearing lampshades on their heads, I was ready to walk the plank.
Andy Cameron and Iain Johnstone are personable, but the relentless jokiness suggests a lack of faith in the original story and in their own ability to fashion something genuinely theatrical and transforming from the book. You get nothing of the twisted father-son relationship of Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver, as the latter is just another figure of fun. Being keel-hauled might be more entertaining.
· At Oxford Playhouse from Wednesday to Saturday. Box office: 01865 305305. Then touring.
