Robert Tanitch reviews Peter Pan at Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park, London, NW1
I suspect J M Barrie’s mixture of romantic fantasy, gooey sentiment, Edwardian spectacle, patriotism and religion has been kept alive for over century by generations of parents rather than by children.
The most famous line in Peter Pan is the often quoted: “To die will be an awfully big adventure.”
In March 1915, during World War 1, George Llewelyn Davies was killed by a sniper.
George and his four brothers, Jack, Peter, Michael and Nico, had played a major part in the creation of the story of Peter and Wendy.
When their parents died, James Barrie became their guardian.
Timothy Sheader and Liam Steel take George’s death as their starting point for their highly original take on the play. The designer is Jon Bausor.
There has been a great deal of tinkering with the text. Mr Darling and Nana, the dog, have been cut.
Smee is a woman and Tinker Bell is a puppet (a Pixar lamp).
Captain Hook is made up to look like Kaiser Wilhelm.
The action is set in a field hospital in France during the War. The actors are dressed as soldiers and nurses in uniform.
Peter Pan wouldn’t grow up because he wanted to be a boy forever and have fun.
There were many lads during 1914-1918 who never grew up because they were killed.
The Lost Boys in Barrie’s play return from Never Land and come back to England. The Lost Boys in real life remained in Flanders and never returned. 10 million soldiers died during the Great War.
Barrie had intended Peter Pan to be acted by a boy, but the Edwardian licensing laws did not allow children to perform past 9.00 pm, so Peter was created by an actress, Nina Boucicault, in 1904 and was played by actresses right up to 1982.
Miles Anderson, Daniel Evans and Mark Rylance were the first males to play Peter in Britain.
Hiran Abeysekera, a very likeable Peter, flies and bungees and soars above the stage with complete confidence and enjoyment.
The actors who play the children get a lot of amusement out of pretending to be children and there is a lively battle with the pirates.
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