Interviewer: Louise Tallon
Off the Ground Theatre’s (OTG) Daniel G. Cambridge and Kathryn McGurk speak to The Reviews Hub as they prepare to take their characters, Long John Silver and Israel Hands across the Irish sea for the next leg of Treasure Island’s UK and Ireland summer tour.
Playwright Connor Wray has adapted Robert Louis Stevenson’s swashbuckling tale of pirates, mutiny and buried treasure to suit a myriad array of beautiful outdoor venues including those at Killyleagh Castle and Bantry, Myross Wood, Lisnavagh and Killruddery Houses.
The family favourite follows the sea-faring adventures of young Jim Hawkins as he encounters villainous marauders and overcomes great peril on his quest to find Captain Flint’s hidden bounty.
For Cambridge, as Jim Hawkins’ conflicted antagonist, “playing Long John Silver has been a blast. It’s 18 years since I did this kind of tour, having only really worked on short runs of small cast plays over the last few years. It’s a physical show and really heavy on the voice with the songs and kind of projection needed at outdoor venues so I have found it quite tiring. I’m really appreciating the rest between the UK and Ireland legs of the tour. The character is a real rogue. He’s charming and friendly at one moment and borderline psychotic the next! As an actor, that is a lot of fun to play with. It’s a real test to find the subtle differences in characterisation and to get those across in a wide open venue with the wind blowing! He says some pretty reprehensible things but you also still need to kind of like him, or at least feel that a young man like Jim might be taken in by him. He also needs to be quite frightening at times, and handy with a sword. Even with a wooden leg! I’ve worked hard to make him a realistic and believable character, playing some of the ‘pirate’ tropes but also trying to keep him real”.
Israel Hands, one of Long John Silver’s men and the treacherous crew member who steers the Hispaniola, is a pleasurable role for McGurk to inhabit. “She’s kind of a dream character for me as she’s a bit of a villain which is always really fun to play. She’s a no-nonsense, ruthless pirate with a bit of a chip on her shoulder especially being a female in a predominantly male profession. She’s very unapologetic about how she handles herself and has a tendency to fight first and deal with the consequences after. It’s especially exciting for me as it means I get the chance to do a lot of stage combat and fight sequences which is always a lot of fun and quite the contrast to last year’s tour where I played Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing.”
Cambridge and McGurk have only good things to say about the rest of the cast and crew. Rafe Cogley and Eve Griffiths, who play Jim Hawkins and his sidekick Sally, have just completed their A-Levels at Calday Grange Grammar School, where director Meigh teaches drama. Cambridge, who runs the Professional Theatre Programme at Cronton 6th Form College, has directed Cogley a couple of times in youth theatre projects and thinks he is a really good fit for Jim, especially in how he portrays Hawkins naivete and playfulness. McGurk agrees and adds that both are “eager to learn and eager to get involved. The two of them are doing really well.” Cambridge mentions that another of his students, Ben Curry, is along this year also and making a great fist of the role of Black Dog.
In the best theatrical tradition OTG are very invested in fostering new talent. “We’ve always treated the company as a training company. These tours will feature a number of more seasoned professionals and then there will be youngsters who are either currently at drama school or are recent graduates.” Their youth theatre offers drama and theatre studies to A-level and they currently have three age groups with members starting at 13 years of age right through to 22 years. Workshops for schools, theatres and community groups etc run concurrently.
Cambridge talks about how invaluable the touring shows are for young actors; “You’re learning the whole timeline of what the play is from the moment you start rehearsing to when the applause stops and then you’ve got to go on and de-rig”. His own two children have come up through youth theatre. Son Noah is actually working as a technician on Treasure Island and has a small cameo. McGurk calls him “Mr. Fix-it”.
She, herself, has been acting since the age of 14 and is a graduate of Young Everyman & Playhouse (YEP) in Liverpool. One of the Liverpudlian’s tutors, Chris Tomlinson, had just finished working in a production of Zorro with OTG and felt a tour with the theatre company would be “a very fun way to get a bit of experience and also a way to have a great summer” for McGurk. Tomlinson set up an audition and in 2018 she was on her way, touring with Sinbad. While live theatre is her great love because “anything can happen when you’re on stage and you’ve got to keep going”, McGurk’s first foray into acting for film on Baby Brother in 2024 was “an amazing experience” and she’s looking forward to seeing it debut on Amazon Prime soon.
30 years ago Cambridge, who is from The Wirral where OTG is based, was “a recent drama school graduate and a hungry young actor when they started doing little bits of touring. I saw a company that could employ me, that had a couple of fellas I quite liked and a bloke that I knew from school, so it was a natural fit.” The school friend was Dan Meigh who is still with OTG and is Treasure Island’s Director. When Cambridge wasn’t busy acting and directing, he was writing and adapting plays and penning children’s books including Spanish Granny Man and Jiggledy Pook.
He tells me how things have changed. “When I first toured with OTG in 2002 on A Midsummer Night’s Dream we didn’t have any staging or big props at all. We used to change costumes behind the van so we couldn’t be seen. We would show up at a venue and it was someone’s job to find a bench for us to use on stage as our set. We had a bit more for Cyrano de Bergerac but now it’s been great to have a decent stage set-up and a couple of gazebos for a dressing room and props store. I’m definitely feeling creaky at 50 but I’m really happy to be back for the 30th anniversary.”
Each OTG member is prepared “to do the full get in and get out. You certainly don’t just drop everything you’ve got on stage and walk away. It’s quite a process from start to finish. It’s a team game and we don’t get to stop really until everything is packed up. Everyone has to chip in, and quickly, so we can all get to the pub!” They have a few sea shanties under their belts this time for when the music starts up. McGurk admits that “you’ve definitely got to have to have a love for theatre. It’s about compromising and sacrificing a little bit and sometimes you will have to miss things like birthdays or holidays but it’s a case of what are you willing to give up?”
With a successful run in magical locations throughout England and Wales behind them, Treasure Island’s 14 strong troupe of players and crew are packing their equipment in the back of a transit van and making their way to Ireland. Cambridge takes Noah but leaves wife Steph and daughter Honor at home and McGurk must abandon her friend to organise their move into a new house without her. The ensemble will stay in Airbnb’s, camp in the stunning gardens of various venues and maybe stay at the odd hotel.
For our part, all we have to do is bring the family, a picnic, a blanket, a bottle of wine perhaps and enjoy an exciting pirate yarn set on the high seas. Probably sensible to take an umbrella though, just in case!
Treasure Island Runs Until August 16th 2025.
