Shiver our timbers! 'Treasure Island' comes to Irondale

By Michelle Manetti

Ahoy, maties!

The Irondale Center is battening down the hatches as it hosts “Treasure Island,” a new swashbuckling adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s coming-of-age story.

Tony Award-winning director B.H. Barry has been working on this version for more than a decade, finally perfecting the schooners, tropical islands and one-legged seamen to tell the story right.

“I started this 14 years ago and have been improving ever since,” said Barry, whose show begins Feb. 15 at the Fort Greene space. “Brooklyn is the perfect place to premiere this version because the audience is so cultured.”

Perhaps, but no matter how cultured the population is, everyone enjoys a good sword fight, and this high-seas spectacle utilizes Irondale’s stage and balcony for some sophisticated fight scenes as the play follows Jim Hawkins, Long John Silver and the rest of the pirate crew.

“There are quite a few action scenes that I hopefully choreographed well,” said Barry. “The audience should expect fighting, throat slitting and some real adventure.” (That said, Irondale says the production is family friendly.)

The director has kept the language and message of the original story, too, and the costumes are in 18th-century style to further bring the classic book to life.

“Those characters are just going to spring off the page,” said Barry.

“Treasure Island” at the Irondale Center [85 S. Oxford St. at Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene. (718) 488-9233], Feb. 15-March 26. Tickets $20-45. For info, visit www.irondale.org.