REVIEW: Pitcairn – at the Festival Theatre, Malvern, from Tuesday, November 18 until Saturday, November 22, 2014.

THE search for paradise abroad, the ideal Utopian world, is a most difficult and dangerous assignment according to these ‘revelations’ about the revolutionaries who carried out the famous mutiny on the Bounty.

It’s 1789 and the aptly named Fletcher Christian, the man who led the mutineers, lands on Pitcairn with his motley group of seafarers and Tahitian men and women looking for a fresh start in life.

Real-life attempts to build new and fairer societies have regularly surfaced over the centuries and playwright Richard Bean, who has been enjoying considerable success in recent times with offerings such as One Man, Two Guvnors and others, provides a man who wants Christian principles set in place – an island where all men and women are equal.

Bean’s version of the Moliere classic, The Hypochondriac, was at Malvern a short time ago, and it gave the impression he is quite happy to test our sensitivities, and jealousy and rivalries soon begin to shock the audience as they rock the fragile foundations of the islanders’ new life.

He bites into religious and political aspects as he explores the couple of decades between the mutiny and contact again with the outside world, and it provides a murky and bloody flashback of what fates may have befell the mutineers. Just a few of the women and some children had survived, along with one mutineer, John Adams, and some of this hugely entertaining tale is based on his far from accurate account.

Moments of brilliance and bawdiness here and there, it doesn’t always hit the mark but doesn’t miss by much.

Director Max Stafford-Clark ensures the cast has fun without overdoing the salty humour the author obviously enjoys. However, the audience inter-action didn’t work that well and a couple of dance sequences, although entertaining, seemed unnecessary apart from possibly underlining the fact that what the nubile Tahitian women revealed they like best is sex – even on a roof!

As for the concluding dance, it begged the question – ‘What the haka was that for?”

No real stand-out performance just an overall high standard throughout the cast although Samuel Edward-Cook’s Quintal was an enjoyably edgy and menacing troublemaker which contrasted well with the bubbly, but not exactly innocent, Mata provided by Cassie Layton.

Pitcairn is an intriguing and interesting take on historical facts and legend. Jump ahead to today and it’s still a place where the Utopian vision has been partially usurped. Troubled too in recent times as two thirds of the men – in a population of around 60 – were found guilty of sexual offences against children and it’s now policed and even has a small prison!

Overall a compelling but cautionary story, it also provides a considerably clever twist in the tail.