The Stage

Peter Pan

Published Wednesday 28 April 2010 at 12:01 by Thom Dibdin

In adapting JM Barrie’s Peter Pan for the National Theatre of Scotland, David Greig has reclaimed Pan from Pantoland and placed him firmly in a Neverland which is as dark and forbidding as the themes of the play itself. The result, under John Tiffany’s slightly stolidly-paced direction, is bold, mysterious and definitely not one for the weans.

Transported from London and Kensington Gardens to Victorian Edinburgh during the building of the Forth Rail Bridge, this is a Neverland where fairies are not light and fluffy, but balls of fire that dance above the stage, crackling as they speak.

It is also a Neverland where people can die, the Lost Boys cluster eagerly around Pan when he returns from his adventures with the still-gory decapitated head of a viking swinging by its plaids.

Kevin Guthrie heads up a seventeen-strong cast as a knowing Pan, whose naivety does not mask his malicious streak.

Kirsty Mackay’s Wendy is a strong-willed sister, discovering in her role as mother to the Lost Boys what her role in life might be. Cal MacAninch is a vibrant Mr Darling, but in a strangely subdued performance, does not achieve enough swagger or bravado as Hook.

Composer and musical director Davey Anderson has suffused the production with music inspired by shanties and folk music. As Mrs Darling, Annie Grace gives much of it a voice, haunting Laura Hopkins’ darkly forbidding set, playing various kinds of pipes like a mortal haunting the dreams and nightmares of the fairy kingdom.

The aerial work is inventively done and makes no attempt to hide the supporting ropes, consequently rendering them surprisingly transparent.

The use of fire for Tinkerbell needs more grace when she is passed from hand to hand and precision in her flight. Stunning in its concept but slightly hesitant in its delivery, this is an inspired and thought-provoking production.

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