Peter Pan

Published Wednesday 4 January 2006 at 16:45 by Richard Edmonds

Put a boy who refuses to grow up alongside a crowd of Lost Boys, a vengeful crocodile and a father who takes on dreamlike significance as a malevolent pirate and you have JMBarrie’s play with all its Freudian overtones.

But add a rollerskating Tinkerbell, sparkling sets and costumes, acrobats, excellent principals and a cruise ship with disco numbers and you get a panto which may well cause Barrie to turn in his grave.

Joe Pasquale, with that voice akin to a demented helium-fuelled balloon, is this year’s star, playing Smee - a character enlarged to accomodate him. With gags absent this year, Pasquale’s endearing drolleries are doubly effective and he happily confounded my earlier expectations.

The venue’s huge stage is used to its limit, for some sizeable sets, while a waterfall turns up very effectively in Neverland.

I never really felt I was aboard the Jolly Roger with its cosy crocodile but I relished Peter Blake’s (not always audible) Captain Hook, thwarted at every turn by Kerris Peeling’s forthright Peter Pan, who, at one point, flew in with great panache from somewhere in the upper circle.

I began to realise slowly why Toby Hull and Emu have not achieved a prominent solo spot. Rod Hull was one thing - Toby is something else altogether.