Peter Pan is a child of the theatre*, first created by J.M. Barrie for his play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Couldn’t Grow Up. It debuted in London in 1904 and transferred to Broadway the following year. Barrie wrote the novel, Peter Pan and Wendy, in 1911 and ever since then, the story and its characters have been revisited and reimagined again and again.
It’s a
silent film and a Disney classic. It’s a live action movie and a pantomime and
a Broadway musical, which debuted in 1954 with Mary Martin in the title role.
Disney has
released sequels to its animated originals. Steven Spielberg made Hook
in 1991. The list of works inspired by Barrie’s original play and novel goes on
and on and on.
In 2004,
Disney published ** Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson’s novel Peter and the
Starcatchers (plural), the first in a series of novels that reinvents Peter
and gives us his backstory – how a nameless orphan gained a name, immortality
and the ability to fly. You know, if you ever wondered.
Writer Rick
Elice adapted Barry & Pearson’s novel into Peter and the Starcatcher
(singular) – a play with music - and it was first produced off-Broadway in 2011
and moved to Broadway in 2012. It was directed by Elice’s husband, Roger Rees,
and Alex Timbers.
That
production was stripped back, relying on old-fashioned theatrical tricks to
prick the imagination of the audience – to believe in the magic of the stage,
just as previous iterations of the story have asked us to believe a boy could
fly. It made something out of nothing a lot of the time – costumes of black and
white and grey, few props, and lots and lots of rope. The magic happened in
between the action and in the shadows.
When I came
out of that production in New York in 2012, I thought that the innovative use
of actors and storytelling, lighting and suggestion elevated the script immensely.
Look, I know it’s a play for the family and you entertain the kids with fart
jokes and slapstick, but concerningly, it also contains humour based on racial
stereotypes, numerous fat jokes and some dubious queer innuendo.
The local
production, which is touring Australia and just opened in Melbourne, is the
brainchild of Dead Puppets’ Society and their Creative Director, David Morton.
The company’s work has been acclaimed worldwide and their inventiveness and
creativity is always astonishing. The puppets they design and create are awesomely
detailed and their puppeteers are some of the best in the world.
Morton has
assembled a world-class team of designers, musicians and actors to create the
most spectacular pantomime you’ve ever seen in your life. Olivia Deeble’s Molly
– the Starcatcher of the title – is feisty and fun. Otis Dhanji’s Boy (who
later becomes Peter) is suitably skittish until he finds his magic and his purpose.
Colin Lane rightly chews the scenery as Black Stache, the bad guy who is
looking for a nemesis to really cement his legacy as a fearsome pirate king.
Pete
Helliar is Pete Helliar, ostensibly playing Smee. (Also, if you didn’t get the “It’s
me, it’s me” joke, he’s costumed like the character in the Disney animated
film.) Alison White is wasted as Lord Aster. And a host of other actors dial
everything up to eleven to hit the jokes but effective miss the heart of the
piece.
It’s
disheartening to sit in an audience that has so many children in it and listen
to them laugh at naughty jokes they’d be pulled up for if they told them at
school. In a show that tries for commentary on the ever-growing British Empire,
it feels extra lazy to have a character named Gomez called Sanchez over and
over again, and to try side-stepping the problematic portrayal of island “savages”
by just making them over-the-top Italian stereotypes.
Everything
about this production is heavy-handed. Where the Broadway production
chose the simplest tricks to invite audience imagination, the choices here are
maximalist. Too much set. Too many costume changes. Props and puppets and broad
comedy voices to hammer everything home.
Late on
opening night, there was some stumbling of lines and some unintended audience
interaction. I’ve seen plenty of shows where they’ve used plants to spice
things up and actors forgetting their lines was part of the fun. But this
digression went on a little long, feeling too much like one or two of the
actors were under-rehearsed. Earlier, some slipped lines were masterfully
handled but, you know, the pantomime must go on.
Shows must
be allowed to let new voices bring them to life. I don’t want every local
production to be a replica of the New York show. But for me, that experience was
a delight. This one was bursting at the seams with colour and noise; it was overwhelming
at times. And it didn’t leave me thinking about the magic of theatre. It made me ponder why a play that ostensibly reaches for the stars spends so much time
punching down.
- Keith Gow, Theatre First
Peter
and the Starcatcher
is playing in Melbourne until December 1 before heading to Adelaide in Jaunary,
Sydney in February and Brisbane in March 2025
Photos: Daniel Boud
* Barrie
wrote of a character with the same name in his short story The Little White
Bird in 1902, but Peter is a baby here – although, already with the ability
to fly
** Disney didn’t have the rights to publish books about Peter Pan and did so without permission and without paying royalties. They eventually cooperated with the Great Ormond Street Hospital, who receive royalties from the character and the story to this day
Comments