Kidnapped – Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh
Based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, National Theatre of Scotland’s retelling of this boy’s own adventure novel is a fine evening’s entertainment.
Branded on the fliers as a ‘swashbuckling rom-com adventure’, it does do some serious veering around from pantomime to poetic to abstract post modern, to sassy jazz cabaret with a splash of bromance.
As Kim Ismay proclaims following her rousing ‘I’ve been everywhere (man)’ opening musical number, ‘this book is different’.
Kidnapped follows the adventures of youth Davie Balfour, who, following the death of his father leaves the safe dullness of his Borders town to travel to Edinburgh in search of his rich uncle. We are at this point introduced to ‘the boulder’, a cleverly conceived hollowed out stage device which also houses a ...