Fearsome female pirates abound in The Abbey Theatre’s Christmas production of Treasure Island and there will be swashbuckling shenanigans both on deck aboard the main stage and in the foyer.

Director David Stone, who joined The Abbey crew back in the 1960s, has a personal history with swordsmanship.

“The first play I ever did at the theatre was AW Pinero’s Dandy Dick,” recalls David. I played Major Tarver a young cavalry officer and I’d never acted before. They gave me a sword to wear and it was a very large cavalry sword on a long harness. I had to hold it up to sit down on sofa and every time I moved, the sofa moved backwards and I was worried I’d soon end up off-stage.”

Despite trouble with his appendage, David got on with the show and is now helping to celebrate the theatre’s 75th anniversary with his panto show.

“Once drama gets into your blood, that’s it. I’d just done my A levels and it was an absolute revelation to me. I’ve been performing, working backstage and directing, more or less ever since.”

David’s family didn’t have a career in drama mapped out for him. He was meant to be in hats.

“I joined the family business and we made uniform hats. The company was very old, we’d been making hats since the 1760s in London up until 1939. My father inherited it and went up one day during The Blitz and found a big hole where the shop used to be, so we moved to St Albans.

“Hat-making was an ancient craft that slowly faded away, and so I turned to teaching.”

David taught drama at Townsend School for more than ten years before retiring, but his enthusiasm for Treasure Island proves he’s not giving up the grease paint just yet.

“I’ve been swashing a lot of buckle recently. I’m being true to Phil Wilmott’s adaptation. He’s arranged it in such a way that it’s very exciting to see and you get a real sense of a pirate’s life and the strange things that happen.

“I’ve had lots of help. The sea shanties and pirates’ working songs have been specially written for the show by David Green who’s from Welwyn. Roger Bartlett, who is married to Tina, our theatre manager, is a professional fight arranger. He’s helped with the fight scenes. When you’ve 20 pirates and a parrot, fighting on stage, it needs to be very carefully choreographed.”

l Treasure Island runs from Thursday, December 17 to Saturday, January 2 at The Abbey Theatre, Holywell Hill, St Albans (01727 857861, www.abbeytheatre2.org.uk) Melanie Dakin