November 25, 2010
Performed in Worcester College JCR, this rendition of Peter Pan was a wonderfully charming performance. Stripping away the layers of Disney and panto tradition the story has become wrapped up in, Adam Scott Taylor delivers a show much more faithful to the origins of the story and absolutely throbbing with thought and love.
There wasn’t a weak link in the cast; all played their roles with imagination and pizzazz. I was especially impressed by Azmina Siddique as Tinkerbell, a traditionally annoying character handled beautifully and made really human by Siddique’s thoughtful but playful performance. The ongoing negotiation of the relationship between Wendy (Eidin Crowdy) and Peter (Michael Gale) was achingly tender and a clear reflection of a common problem in adult relationships – Peter’s asking if the boys are his and Wendy’s sorrowful questioning of what she was to him were a lovely take on a twenty something tussle over commitment.
The set and tech were nothing flashy, but provided a perfect backdrop to the story, and the music (an original score performed live by a small band) was lovely – some of the songs were beautifully tender, all were performed with gusto by the cast and nicely spaced through the action. I also liked the collection at the end for Great Ormond Street Hospital; according to Barrie, Peter Pan himself was once treated there.
The blurring of reality and fantasy was beautifully realised, and was the real strength of this production. The combination of Worcester JCR perfectly evoking the Darling’s nursery and the audience turning up in pyjamas and being seated on mattresses and mounds of cushions on the floor placed us firmly in the action. The play starts with a group of children acting out the story of Peter Pan for each other (and us) and the staging techniques were all things that children could feasibly have achieved – houses out of cushions and face paint, applied on stage, to indicate character changes. Despite, or because of, the firm framing of the action as a nursery story, by the end I believed in it utterly. And, for one heart stopping moment, I really did believe that Peter could fly.
The cast and crew of Peter Pan have delivered a completely captivating slice of true theatre. They have taken a battered sofa, a pile of pillows and an open window and turned them into real magic.
There wasn’t a weak link in the cast; all played their roles with imagination and pizzazz. I was especially impressed by Azmina Siddique as Tinkerbell, a traditionally annoying character handled beautifully and made really human by Siddique’s thoughtful but playful performance. The ongoing negotiation of the relationship between Wendy (Eidin Crowdy) and Peter (Michael Gale) was achingly tender and a clear reflection of a common problem in adult relationships – Peter’s asking if the boys are his and Wendy’s sorrowful questioning of what she was to him were a lovely take on a twenty something tussle over commitment.
The set and tech were nothing flashy, but provided a perfect backdrop to the story, and the music (an original score performed live by a small band) was lovely – some of the songs were beautifully tender, all were performed with gusto by the cast and nicely spaced through the action. I also liked the collection at the end for Great Ormond Street Hospital; according to Barrie, Peter Pan himself was once treated there.
The blurring of reality and fantasy was beautifully realised, and was the real strength of this production. The combination of Worcester JCR perfectly evoking the Darling’s nursery and the audience turning up in pyjamas and being seated on mattresses and mounds of cushions on the floor placed us firmly in the action. The play starts with a group of children acting out the story of Peter Pan for each other (and us) and the staging techniques were all things that children could feasibly have achieved – houses out of cushions and face paint, applied on stage, to indicate character changes. Despite, or because of, the firm framing of the action as a nursery story, by the end I believed in it utterly. And, for one heart stopping moment, I really did believe that Peter could fly.
The cast and crew of Peter Pan have delivered a completely captivating slice of true theatre. They have taken a battered sofa, a pile of pillows and an open window and turned them into real magic.