PETER PAN. To 3 January.
Dundee
PETER PAN
by JM Barrie adapted by Stuart Paterson
Dundee Rep Theatre To 3 January 2004
Mon-Sat 7.15pm Mat 26,27,29-31 December, 3 January 2.30pm no eve performance 26,31 December, no performance 1-2 January
Runs 2hr 10min One interval
TICKETS: 01382 223530
Review: Timothy Ramsden 2 December
A fine theatrical treat with some superb playing.I am utterly amazed. Stuart Paterson wrote his adaptation of Barrie's classic for TAG theatre to tour round schools. I caught up with it as a Christmas show at Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum, a few years ago. It seemed entirely unsuitable for the full-dress treatment: like an athlete trying to run in ceremonial robes. It was so disappointing I decided not to see Dundee's revival. Luckily, I was persuaded. Can it be the same show? It works superbly.
There may be Barrie bits people familiar with the original miss, though Paterson seems to have ironed down some of the more cloying Edwardianism. There's still some whimsy: daddy in the dog-house (though Nana sniffs out the medicine-laced milk, rather than gulping it down), carried home from the office in a sedan-kennel.
And the end loses out when Irene McDougall's mother has to change to grown-up Wendy while Emily Pollet becomes the next generation's daughter (That's not Wendy,' an innocently perspicacious young voice called from the audience, gaining one of the afternoon's biggest laughs big enough to suggest the point had registered, silently, with others).
But Bunny Christie's set aptly contrasts a constricted arch for the safe Darling home, with the wide-open, yet coldly white space of Neverland. There, Pan's a true hero, happily flaunting the father-figure, now converted into the black-curled Captain Hook.
Kevin Lennon's fine-judged performance lets the childlike Peter blaze confidently, while not hiding the limitations of eternal childhood. Though the production doesn't push the point, there's a sad tinge to a world with no women and no mother (something Paterson echoes in the importance of mother-figures in his own plays).
Emily Pollet's Wendy is also finely-judged, avoiding the looming archness and showing the character as a real friend for Peter giving and needing while both lost boys and pirates fill in their world, John Buick's rather amiable Smee being particularly noticeable.
But it's Richard Clews' Hook that makes the play. Already an experienced Paterson player from his Newcastle-upon-Tyne days (the definitive Dunt and pattern of a Cobweb Spider), Clews rich-voiced villain takes time to let us relish his conscious evil, and power over his crew.
Add Bruno Poet's evocative lighting plot and there's a rich Christmas show.
John: Ben Thompson
Nana/Cecco: Keith Fleming
Mrs Darling/Bill Jukes/Grown-up Wendy: Irene McDougall
Peter Pan: Kevin Lennon
Wendy/Jane: Emily Pollet
Mr Darling/Captain Hook: Richard Clews
Liza/Tiger Lily: Emily Winter
Slightly: William Barlow
Nibs/Skylights Morgan: Mark Kane
Tootles: Steven Blakeley
Smee: John Buick
Starkey: Robert Paterson
Director: Dominic Hill
Designer: Bunny Christie
Lighting: Bruno Poet
Music: Dan Jones
Choreographer: Janet Smith
Costumes: Phyllis Byrne
Fight director: Alison de Burgh
2003-12-29 17:50:51