A SWASHBUCKLING new theatre production will see a beloved Scots author’s story retold for modern audiences.
Kidnapped, based on the novel of the same name by Robert Louis Stevenson, follows David Balfour who leaves home for the first time and must grow up fast to solve a family mystery and take revenge on an evil assailant.
Adapted for the stage by Isobel McArthur with Michael John McCarthy, the vibrant, coming-of-age romcom celebrates the poetry, humour and heart of Stevenson’s original writing while making it accessible to today’s viewers.
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Isobel believes it is important to bring these historic tales to new audiences in a way that they can be enjoyed by everyone.
“Because we know these books are precious and these stories are told so well, they’re worth hanging onto,” Isobel says ahead of Kidnapped's run at the Theatre Royal next week.
“I think it’s our responsibility as artists to adapt them, to put them in a frame and a context that makes everybody feel far less excluded and far less intimidated.
“Our poor teachers in schools are limited in the amount of time and resources and ways that they can share lots of brilliant old literature with young people and as much as Stevenson was a literary star of his day, they’re written in the old style and language of that time and that’s why they were very accessible, entertaining and successful.
“But I don’t think you can expect your average 15-year-old to necessarily be able to just dive into this completely different linguistic world, though there will be those that can, but I think the expectation for a lot of them is to be able to just read it fluently and that is the reason that so many are put off and think that it mustn’t be for them.”
Isobel says the adaptation “comes from a place of adoring the source material” and becoming interested in both the biographies of Stevenson and his wife Frances Van de Grift.
Frances, an American writer herself who supported her husband throughout his writing, features in the production in the role of a spirit guide to the protagonist Davie.
This version of Kidnapped reframes the relationship between the central characters Davie and Alan Breck Stewart (Malcolm Cumming) as a romance, which is played out through their adventures across the Lowlands and Highlands of Scotland which are still reeling from the aftermath of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion.
Ryan J Mackay, who was most recently seen on stage in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, takes on the role of Davie.
He says as soon as he saw Isobel’s name attached to the production, he was keen to audition.
Ryan said: “When the script came through it wasn't what I was expecting but it’s so beautifully done that for me as an actor it’s so fun to play and the amount of stuff I get to do in this show is cool."
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Describing the character, he continued: “Davie is a bit of a loner, not many people like him in town, and he’s someone who is young, but he has a drive to better himself and see what else is out there.
“He’s constantly coming up against hurdles in his life, instead of just gracefully jumping over them he barges on through them and sees what’s at the end.
“He’s smart but he gets himself in situations that are just ridiculous, but he’s very good at getting himself out and he finds himself falling in love, which is something he never expected to feel.”
Isobel, who comes from Glasgow, says she is looking forward to bringing the production in front of a Glasgow crowd, calling them “simply the best audience in the world”.
She explained: “I wear my politics on my sleeve and in my work, because that’s where a lot of your passion and morality and storytelling spirit lives, and Glaswegian audiences in the simplest terms ‘get it’.
“I think they recognise and relate to the making accessible of otherwise starchy old things and they recognise that it’s actually still radical.”
So, what can the audience expect from this retelling of Kidnapped?
“It’s a coming-of-age story,” Isobel explains.
“There’s a lovely young, Scottish, anti-hero character, it’s told through live music, so the whole cast is also a band, and that musical score is made up of pop music, Americana, lots of 80s music as well.
“Amongst all the other stuff about its accessibility, it’s got extraordinary emotional heft as well.
“Dramatically, it really packs a punch and Malcolm and Ryan in those two central roles carry an extraordinary amount of high-octane drama between them – there is a fiery core to the whole thing.”
Ryan added: “It will be a show you want to see twice I think.”
Kidnapped will be at the Theatre Royal from Wednesday, April 5 until Saturday, April 8.
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