Shadows of Robert Louis Stevenson

Click HERE to view and purchase SHADOWS BY JERRY SIPP on Vimeo

Season Subscribers, email us for your free link.

General public $20 one-time use link. Those that need a discount, $10 one-time use link by using the password “Discount”.

PLEASE contact us if you are unable to pay to view SHADOWS and we will provide a free link for you.

A One-Man Show Written and Performed by Jerry Sipp

October 16, 2020

FREE for our Season Subscribers, Sponsors, Advertisers, and Grantors

Click HERE for an interview with Jerry by Lauren Van Hemert from RDU on Stage

Click HERE for Jerry on WHUP’s Lights Up with Wayne Leonard

Click HERE for a fascinating discussion with UVA professor and Stevenson scholar Stephen Arata: “A Scotchman of the World: The Travels of Robert Louis Stevenson and the Power of Storytelling” 

Click HERE for an interview with writer Danny Heitman: "Robert Louis Stevenson, A Writer Born for the Stage"

Join The Justice Theater Project for the regional premiere of Artistic Director, Jerry Sipp’s original drama, Shadows

Filled with twists and turns, SHADOWS, provides an interesting insight into the life of Robert Louis Stevenson, who suffered from serious bronchial trouble for a large part of his life, at 40-years-old. Despite his poor health, he wrote prolifically and was encouraged by many in London literary circles. Stevenson is best known for such adventures as Treasure Island, Kidnapped, A Child’s Garden of Verses, and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

SHADOWS takes place in a room in a manor house in Sydney, Australia where we find Stevenson stumbling in, submerged to the chest in a large canvas mailbag. Jolly laughter can be heard coming from inside the bag, as well as intermittent coughing. The figure emerges with a hearty laugh and a large handful of letters. The man hardly looks like a famous author. But he is, indeed, Robert Louis Stevenson, age 40. His lean, sickly appearance is contradicted by a broad smile, a resonant Scottish dialect.

Playwright, Jerry Sipp said, "I originally wrote this piece in 1989 while I was in the NC Visiting Artist Program as a tribute to Stevenson and his characters. I had been a big fan after playing Long John Silver for The NC Theatre For Young People. After the COVID crisis hit, I realized that the tale of Stevenson's life experience was not unlike our own these days, which makes the story timely.”

“Stevenson had tuberculosis or similar serious lung disease. Though he was quite the adventurer, he spent a good deal of his life as an invalid, locked away in a room by himself or with only a family member or two to care for him. And yet, despite his illness and his self-quarantine, his vivid imagination and determination helped him live a full life and to write some of the finest adventure books ever written.”

“Stevenson was popular and playful. He loved art, theatre, and toys; he traveled with a trunk full of things that he was given relating to his books. When he was well, he often was heard acting out his characters as he was locked away in his room. I take this concept one step further, so that the audience not only gets to spend time with Stevenson, but with some of his most famous characters, like Alan Breck, Long John Silver, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

"RLS was the most versatile of writers – poet, essayist, travel writer, children’s author, historical novelist and humorist who also found time to pen some of the finest letters in the English language. His life story, from Edinburgh to the South Seas, was every bit as exciting as his novels – and he crammed it all into a life of 44 years." 

Click here to view shadows on vimeo on demand