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This play’s title carries the revisionism in Ella Hickson’s feminist version of JM Barrie’s tale about forever childhood. Yet, ironically, it seems as if this Royal Shakespeare Company production from 2013 has not aged well itself.
Wendy (Hannah Saxby) is the protagonist here, grieving for a young dead brother who she seeks to find and bring back from Neverland. Despite the reframing, she remains strangely tame, duly playing at being “mother” to the Lost Boys, full of uncertainty, self-deprecation and guilt for most of the play. So, when she suddenly decides to form a sisterhood with Tink (Charlotte Mills) and Tiger Lily (Ami Tredrea) – “let’s go kick some pirate bum” – it comes from nowhere, and feels thoroughly latched on. Mrs Darling (Lolita Chakrabarti) is also given more agency, wresting freedom in her marriage and talking of the Suffragettes, but it is rather removed from the main drama.
Peter Pan (Daniel Krikler) is given his own inner crisis that looks strangely like hormonal desire. He seems much more a teenager than a boy and has the urges of one too, clearly hot-crushing on Wendy, offering her shy kisses and calling her “babe”. It sits oddly within the story of a boy who refuses to grow up: this one seems as if he is losing that battle and it is icky to witness.
According to the programme, the production has been “developed and expanded over the years”. Directed by Jonathan Munby, it is quite the theatrical monster now, with dazzling lights and a sea of video projections (designed by Taiki Ueda) that saturate the stage in waves. There is impressive aerial work and the Jolly Roger sails monumentally on to the stage more than once.
It should all arrest the senses but seems like a cheap sugar-rush of spectacle that does not hit the spot. Actors rush around, often shouting or screeching their lines so that they really do seem like adults playing at being children too energetically. The accompanying music, by Shuhei Kamimura, sounds like a generic “buccaneer action film” score and is uncouthly cranked up for every sword fight.
There is good movement (choreographed by Lucy Hind) that slows down the frenetic pace; and some minor characters such as Hook’s right-hand man, Smee (Scott Karim), along with Tredrea’s subtly played Tiger Lily, bring some charm along with a dangerously roving crocodile (Harrison Claxton, with excellent physicality).
It is not enough to redeem proceedings. Despite the pace, it drags. What might, in its original state, have been radical now appears like a soulless stage juggernaut – a mix of big optics Christmas and pantomime. Captain Hook (Toby Stephens) channels pure panto baddie (while philosophising on ageing) and Tink seems like its cockney fairy. When one character emphatically asks, “They’re behind me, aren’t they?” the pantomime is complete.
