Gemini Players perform Robinson Crusoe

Gemini Players will be performing the pantomime “Robinson Crusoe” by Jonathan Rowe in St Luke’s Church Hall, February 18 -21 2026

Emma Bunce will be sending you few lines about launch of the show which is on September 23 at 8pm in the Hall. All are welcome to come along to be involved on or off stage

Here are few local connections. Woodes Rogers, Elizabeth Teach, Israel Hands , Anne Bonny and Mary Read all appear as fictionalised characters in the pantomime.

Daniel Defoe ( 1660 – 1731 )  published “Robinson Crusoe ” in 1719. It’s said to have been partly inspired by the story of Alexander Selkirk  ( 1676 – 1721 ) who was stranded  for four years on  Mas a Terra ,an uninhabited island off the coast of Chile, renamed “Robinson Crusoe Island” in 1966.

Selkirk  was recused by Woodes Rogers ( c.1679 – 1732 ) in 1709 while Rogers was captain of a ship sailing round the world.

Woodes Rogers  was a mariner and privateer and later Governor of the Bahamas who grew up in Bristol and later lived in a house in Queen Square on the site of No 35 where there is a blue plaque to commemorate him.

One of the Bristol merchants who funded the voyage which rescued Selkirk  was Sir John Hawkins who lived at  the 17th century house, The Chestnuts,  which still stands off Bonville Road, Brislington. Sir John was Mayor of Bristol in 1702 when Queen Anne knighted him on her visit to Bristol.

Defoe reputedly met Selkirk in the Llandoger Trow, King Street. Selkirk certainly did spend time in Bristol and it’s said walked the streets wearing the goat skin costume he wore on the island.

Elizabeth Teach ( c. 1682 – 1728 ) was the sister of Edward Teach, better known as “Blackbeard The Pirate”. In the panto she’s the villain but she wasn’t actually a pirate in real life! The family grew up in Bristol and lived near St Mary Redcliffe church. They later moved to Jamacia  where Elizabeth married a French merchant in 1707 and died there aged 45. Elizabeth and Edward’s grandfather was Revd Thomas Teach, vicar of St Cyr church, Stonehouse, Gloucestershire.

Anne Bonny ( d c. 1720 ) and Mary Read ( d 1721 ) are the comedy panto double act. They were the most famous female pirates in the early 18th century  but little detail is known about them.

Another Bristol connected  historical character is pirate , Israel Hands (  c, 1701 – c. 1722/24 )  who was Blackbeard’s second in command. He is said to have been born and or grew up in Bristol. His name was immortalised in Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” in 1883.