As soon as the interval for Peter Pan starts, I make a run for the bathroom. When I open the door I am met with two young girls who are incessantly mimicking Peter Pan’s inner city accent with glee. I, on the other hand, was feeling a little let down by what I had just seen. The play opens in a colourful but vague bedroom that bears no resemblance to early 20th century Dublin. This would be expected had the poster not shown a row of terraced houses with a massive hook going through it and a woman wheeling a giant fish in a barrow, nodding to the famous Dubliner Molly Malone. Not to mention the name ‘Roddy Doyle’ being illuminated in neon green, which immediately made me think that this Peter Pan would include characters akin to Jimmy Rabbitte in a culture that a Dublin audience would recognise.
Peter Pan exists in two worlds, the real and the imaginary Neverland. I wasn’t sure how the production would connect Neverland to Dublin but I had hoped to see my city feature prominently in this narrative. Not so. The set was practically bare, with a background of paper strips and a minimum of props, some being a mattress and tyre. Pops of neon colour are randomly dispersed throughout the set and costume. Although this colour scheme is in line with the poster’s aesthetic, I don’t know what it was supposed to represent.
Furthermore, the play relied completely upon imagination to create magic on stage. In one scene, the children are portrayed to be flying to Neverland through physical theatre. This was attempted as two actors lay on the stage and held up two of the other actors. There was a near miss on the night I saw, as one of the actors had to try twice before successfully landing on their partner’s hands and legs. Additionally, more actors entered the stage holding two-dimensional figures to represent the other characters who also should be flying in this scene. The entire sequence became completely unbelievable as the audience could not invest their imagination in two different versions of these characters flying.
This diverged road in the reality of Neverland continued throughout the play and stood out particularly in a fight scene between Peter Pan and Captain Hook. Hook announces that he cannot capture Pan but just before he admits this defeat, his claw touches Peter’s shoulder.
‘The scene was blocked with the two actors really close together so it was unsurprising that they accidentally touched. If Hook literally does reach Pan, how can anyone breathe a sigh of relief at this supposed lucky escape?
I believe that the show would have benefitted from being staged in the round rather than proscenium. If the audience was close to the action, our imaginations might become more engaged in creating the invisible world of Neverland through these characters. However, I think this is a production that needs to go back to the drawing board and find Neverland in the landscape of Dublin, as well as deciding whether to completely rely upon the audience to imagine the impossible, or truly attempt to create magic technically on stage.
Having said all that, many found it an enjoyable production. Last week, I asked an eleven year old what she thought of the show and she responded “It was amazing”. When she heard some of my concerns, she simply shrugged. Though I hold tight to my childhood wonder, perhaps I’m still missing a little faith, trust and pixie dust.
WORDS: Amy Callery
