Ahoy there, me hearties! Here’s an old-fashioned adventure story told in a way that is slightly less than adventurous but still appealingly gimmick-free. It ought to delight all children and adults who enjoy a ripping yarn. Stuart Paterson’s brisk new adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel plunges us straight into the action. The result is a stage version that at its best is bracingly pacy, but at its worst feels rushed. In addition, this production by Greg Banks for the Birmingham Stage Company feels as though it could do with an extra dash of darkness and danger.

The familiar motifs of Stevenson’s tale are all there, from the sinister Black Spot to the pieces of eight, bottles of rum and the Jolly Roger, along with some nifty swashbuckling action courtesy of the fight director, Andrew Ashenden. Jackie Trousdale’s designs, Jason Taylor’s atmospheric lighting and Matthew Scott’s music, which mixes sea shanties with tension-heightening underscoring, are unobtrusive, economical and highly effective.

Trousdale creates the play’s multiple settings of disreputable tavern, ship’s deck and desert island in hemp, timber and sand. Steep wooden walkways supply useful multilevelled playing spaces; in the centre, a mast constructed of a pillar wrapped around with ropes elegantly rotates and unfurls, once the Hispaniola reaches shore, to become a vine-choked tropical tree.

Stevenson’s story is dense, and Paterson’s overcompression of it means that the cast has to work hard to make each moment count. Iain Ridley as Jim Hawkins is an engaging young hero and Brendan Foster’s Black Dog is deliciously nasty. Christopher Llewellyn’s Blind Pew is creepy, and although we see far too little of him Llewellyn returns later with a suitably loopy turn as the marooned, cheese-fixated Ben Gunn. Leo Atkin gives us a Squire Trelawney who is appropriately pompous and naive, while Anthony Houghton is all dry, crisp practicality as Doctor Livesey.

Paterson interestingly highlights Long John Silver’s curious paternal affection for Jim, but Gavin Robertson presents us with a villain who isn’t nearly scary or ruthless enough – though he does possess a fun puppet parrot. Even more problematic are the climactic battles, which are perfunctory and often off stage. And when Jim loses his boyhood innocence in shooting a mutinous mariner the moment fails to register as it should, because the character has barely been introduced before he is killed off.

Moments of confusion mean there is a certain fidget-factor associated with the show, but it retains a certain charming simplicity and narrative dash, and will undoubtedly tighten and sharpen as it continues its run and enters into a lengthy tour. As we say hello to a new year and goodbye to festivities dominated by Santa, the yo-ho-ho refreshingly sweeps away the vestiges of ho-ho-ho.

Box office 0121-303 2323. Ends January 26, then begins touring

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