Peter Pantomime

Surely J.M. Barrie’s eternally popular story of the Boy Who Never Grows Up needs no introduction. This GTG adaptation by Eddie and Polly King ticks all the boxes for an energetic, lively, amusing and enchanting pre-Christmas entertainment for young and old.

The sets were great, quite complex with ‘upstairs and downstairs’ sections, able by a clever opening of doors to transport us from the Darlings’ home in London to Neverland, to the Lost Boys’ Cave, etc. They were colourful and strangely realistic, or was that the magic of the story working on us all? The clever use of the gauze and film projected onto it, produced a great ’flying’ scene. How DID they do that? And I loved the Mermaids’ glistening rock!

There was an amazing array of bright costumes – Peter Pan, Captain Hook, The Mermaids and Tinkerbell especially delighted, with the amazing crocodile as the icing on the cake! There were jolly songs throughout, and the volume was not too high, which is always a blessing. The singalong: ‘I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas’ was an inspired choice, and quite an ‘earworm’ – I still keep humming it to myself!

Peter Pan, played to perfection by Danni Stembridge, had the energy, enthusiasm for fun and scrapes, and body language – the great ‘tilt’ of the head, etc – to quite convince me that she was the, what is he, 11 year old boy who never grows up. She belted out her punchy numbers in fine voice, and duetted wonderfully with Wendy.  Wendy (Megan Earl) was a sweetly feminine contrast to Peter, soon able to take on the maternal role to all those Lost Boys, with a voice as clear as a bell. What a fantastically terrifying Captain Hook (Akhil Gowrinath), in his brilliant red costume and Big Facial Hair. His booming voice must have made all the children in the audience quake in their boots! Splendid!

A jolly, and maybe rather vulnerable at times Smee (Andy Roe); some great Indian Chiefs – I loved the ‘Who, What, Why’ song - ; lively Lost Boys adoringly following Peter Pan; Yo Ho Ho Pirates; our scary Indians, and of course the Darling family and lovely put-upon Nana the dog, completed this excellent and fun performance, full of jolly jokes and exciting escapades, good dance numbers and well-executed songs. Wonderful!

So congratulations are due to the brilliant writing and directing team of Polly and Eddie King, to the cast and production team, the singers, dancers, imparters of jokes, the dog and the crocodile!

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