Peter Pan gets adult treatmemt

Puckish and real: Kevin Guthrie as Peter Pan
10 April 2012

Peter Pan is a play that’s been remorselessly Disneyfied. J. M. Barrie’s classic is dark and haunting, but tends to get bowdlerised.

Gratifyingly, David Greig’s new version bucks this trend. A co-production between the Barbican and the National Theatre of Scotland, it restores the shadowy depth of the original. It also transposes the story from Edwardian Kensington to Victorian Edinburgh.

The set is framed by the unfinished Forth Rail Bridge, and the atmosphere at times has an
almost Gothic gloom. Captain Hook’s pirates are muscular.

Kirsty Mackay’s Wendy is refreshingly wilful.
Although a few moments of sentimentality remain, Greig has refashioned the play as a dystopian vision of lost innocence, and there are even echoes of Dante.

His writing feasts on ambivalence. What it lacks, though, is joie de vivre.

Kevin Guthrie, who’s still at drama school, impresses in the title role. His performance as Peter is energetic, puckish and feral. The other standout is Cal MacAninch, whose Captain Hook is a tattooed monster, bristling with menace.

Arguably the most beguiling character, though, is Tinkerbell — not a person, but a floating, dancing ball of flame, brilliantly achieved by illusion designer Jamie Harrison.

The production is full of bold gestures. Laura Hopkins’s set is ingeniously versatile, and Davey Anderson’s music has an operatic weight. Yet the emotional palette isn’t rich enough, and the tragedy even at the climax needs more emphasis.

A persistent problem is the lack of pace. John Tiffany’s direction creates knots of raucous action, yet elsewhere matters are uncomfortably static. There’s a shortage of momentum.

The result is a rendering of Peter Pan that certainly doesn’t feel well suited to children. Adults may relish the technical ambition but this audacious refashioning of Barrie’s masterpiece doesn’t truly fly.
Until May 29. Info: 0845 120 7500.

Peter Pan
Barbican
Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS

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