Peter Pan Jr

TMTYC came back to the theatre after the pandemic enforced break with a show that was worth the wait from the faces of the cast enjoying their show to the audience who were thoroughly enjoying it. With a new venue for this group of the Arc Theatre Stockton the staging, set and performances all came together to create a land of Panto make-believe.  The open set, simple, clean design allowed the scenes to flow with additional back projection adding definition to scenes.  The additional furniture and props were beautifully created and painted adding the details for various scenarios, added to by the colourful lighting and effects.  The costumes were bright, traditional in design and beautifully made depicting the different character groups.  As some of the cast played several characters in different scenes, the fast costume changes were slick and well done.

The lead role of Peter Pan was ably played by Lauren Wilson, singing ,dancing, and great energetic character, who also coped with the technical requirements to fly up into the air so gracefully, she did a great job both for her own role and supporting her fellow cast members.  The accompanying fairy to Peter is of course “Tinkerbell”, who, not able to speak is a role quite demanding for young one to express but Poppy Short carried out with great skill throughout and whose opening ballet dance was a joy to watch. Her character and elegance were both as beautiful as the costume.  The three Darling children all gave lovely performances for their young ages, a collective cast of talents. Wendy, played by Daisy Turner-Sykes was serene in her cheerful caring character, singing her lovely duet “Distant Melody” with Lauren, and also coping with flying. John as the middle child with a bossy character was brought to us by Patrick Cook-Smith, also flying, and who gave a lovely performance in this role.  The youngest child Michael performed by Isaac Short as the mischievous one had great character, singing and dancing too, lift and flying too. Mrs Darling was beautifully elegant from Katie Shepherd, and her song “Tender Shepherd” was well acted, who then went on to play the comedic Crocodile scooting across the stage on the lily pad became the favourite throughout and gained more reaction each appearance, well deserved as her antics were quite the part. Also singing and dancing as a pirate member she was a joy to watch. Michael Reeve as Mr Darling was the very presence of higher-class stiffness, well played, who then also went onto become the fearsome Captain Hook as a raucous pirate with great accent and character, songs and fight scene to show his many talents. a one to watch in the future.  Hook’s sidekick “Smee” was played by Edward Cook-Smith as the cumbersome thug who is actually a softie at heart and played with fetching Irish accent for this role, a good performance. additional character was Mrs Hook, mother to the Captain, played by Emma Biddlecombe with super characterisation, excellent expressions and diction. Leader of the Braves is Tiger Lily who was portrayed by Abbie Whitehead with lovely singing voice and character, and well danced in her duet “Ugh a Wug”, leading her band of Braves who all danced well and looked their part in character and costume. With pirate team and lost boys team of characters too the stage was filled a cast of varying ages who all interacted, danced, sang and acted their way through the show to make the joyous evening it was, finale was complete with flying dog, Nana, well done Abigail Beck, a very cute and comedy characterisation.

Lovely to see the young cast on stage, supported by a few older ones, and a great backstage team too.  Welcome back TMTYC.

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