Ed Rampell – Hollywood Progressive
Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum’s adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic pirate novel Treasure Island is absolutely good fun. Audiences today are used to watching action stories on screens, but beholding the WGTB troupers leap off of the page onto the stage to enact duels, chases, pistol, musket and cannon fire live and in the flesh, en masse, is deliciously delightful to see in person. Enhancing the action-packed mise-en-scene, executed by a cast of dozens deftly directed by Ellen Geer, is how the company makes full use of and incorporates into the blocking the woodsy environs that WGTB’s amphitheater is ensconced in. Read more…
F. Kathleen Foley – Stage Raw
The biggest draw to seeing Treasure Island, now running in rotating repertory at Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum, is the verdant and sprawling outdoor venue, tucked away in Topanga Canyon. Go early. Bring a sweater. Have a picnic. Listen to the shrieking calls of the peacocks. Then, be prepared to sit through Ellen Geer’s painfully protracted “reimagination” of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Read more…