The Lost Colony — Attraction in Roanoke Island

Good show! Dancers excellent, voices of singers lovely. The script is a bit dated in that it depends on a few antiquated cultural tropes that nowadays seem puzzling at best, just dumb at worst. The director and cast really tried to workaround the racist jokes, allowing the Indians some dignity, and the drunken bafoonery humor of the old Tom character. But it felt like the modern equivalent of just not paying attention to grandpa's ugly sense of humor and loving him for his deeper humanity. I couldn't help but wish that the script could have been more deftly used to truly speak to the current audience. The two or three women's empowerment scraps were definitely underlined but it felt like, "See, there's redeeming value here!" The last gasp of a drowning script. Kind of embarrassing in its desperate struggle to be relevant. Ultimately I felt like this play can go two ways: it's director needs to love and cherish each phrase and moment so much that it provokes the actors to completely embrace and enrich the whole play to evolve into a production that both educates and spellbinds with a deeply informed, thoroughly explored (by the actors during rehearsal) so that the confidence and commitment shines through the script, savoring every bit of it as if all the facets of this jewel are equally stunning - then, the audience would not be imposed upon at all. But rather, we would have had the chance to love and believe as deeply as the director, with as much confidence and self esteem as the actors. This challenge must be risen to, takes sophistication, imagination and insight. Or, the other way this play could go is that it gets a rewrite, updating out the uncomfortable parts and simplifying the speeches to keep the story interesting. The downside there is that the existing script contains truly delicious phrasing and rather beautiful cadence - which, I think, the director of last night's performance, may have simply missed. The physical movement/blocking was fine, but the verbal story telling - felt thrown away out of a lack of respect. A shallow and cheap choice that left me with annoyed with the work ethic of the director. The actors felt abandoned to just keep it moving along at a fast clip to get the boring irrelevant script over with. What a wicked waste of their talent! The only exception was the park ranger and a few moments with old Tom. And those felt like independent choices made by good actors who themselves loved their lines and saw the vision. But even they couldn't survive the stampeding pace and overall embrace of irrelevancy. You can't blame the rest of the actors either. Clearly they were all onboard with a collective directive to just do their level best with a lame script. Except that for those of us in the audience who have seen this show delivered with more care know that this is not really true. Attention producers: choose the director with more creativity and care next time, and give them all the support you can! This show...

I want to preface this by saying I came here repeatedly as a kid and a young adult. Approximately 10 times. Each and everytime I visited the play I was enthralled and looked forward to my next visit. Well, as it does, life happens and it has been probably 15 or so years since my last visit.

This year I was bringing my sons for their first visit. They stated they enjoyed the play,and ultimately that is what matters, but this was not remotely the production that I grew to love. Though the history remains the same, much had changed from the production I remembered.

Story telling took a back seat to theatrics. Dialog and character development was replaced by a drum line and rifle twirling. In the past, the passage of time was marked by a changing set (England, an abandoned Fort, a functional fort) to convey to the audience the realities of what the colonists faced. These elements were missing.

There was a much greater focus on the Native American lore. While this was interesting, I found it to be confusing and drawn out. I also did not feel as though this moved the story along.

While I am extremely happy that the boys enjoyed themselves, I don't know that this is a play, at this time, that I would enjoy taking them to on a yearly basis.

UPDATE 8/15/2024

We went to the play this summer despite hesitation based on my previous review. I can honestly say I am EXTREMELY HAPPY that we went. The play, while not the same as it was in my youth, was excellent.

Some of the positive changes that I saw were that the drum line and rifle twirling (that did nothing for the story) were no longer a part of the show.

The Native American lore and animals were still included. However, I felt the manner that they were included made it a part of the story as opposed to just being there with no purpose.

A projector was introduced. This was incredible. It was able to project different scenes and was very well done.

This was a completly different show than it was 2 years ago, but still tells the same story. It is well worth visiting...

I have loved The Lost Colony play for most of my life. I have seen it at least once a year since I was 10ish and am in my 40s. I collect the programs and have them as far back as 1938. I know some dialog & songs. I was greatly looking forward to seeing it this year after being closed last year due to the pandemic. I was really excited they had the Lumbee tribe involved and the Native people were actively involved portraying their history.

Unfortunately, the show was disappointing. There were wonderful parts, all the Native American dancing, imagery, the storyteller, the puppets, the voyage of the colonists across the ocean, were fantastic and beautifully executed. The cast was also very good.

The story was difficult to follow. My 10 year old nephew was lost, I had to explain to him what was going on several times. I would have been lost, had I not actually seen the play over 30+ times prior and had studied the history at great length. There was so, so much going on. It felt like it was trying really hard to be a Broadway musical, but at the cost of the story and wonderfully written parts. Parts, like that of Old Tom, who's story was once the most moving transformation of a character, that was cut down so much as to remove the heart and make them meaningless. It was...disappointing. I'm sad.

I don't agree with the woman leaving in front of us that was mad about (among other things) the Old Tom part being changed and exclaimed, "This sucked!" I think there is good in it. I think the good could easily be worked into past scripts and staging. Unfortunately, in this version, the good gets overwhelmed by the confusion, singing, dancing and drum line.

I can appreciate what was attempted, but the singing, dancing and spectacle overwhelmed the play itself. And, if I may be so bold as to borrow a line from Shakespeare's Hamlet, "The...