“… the comedy wins out and this production is basically a panto experience.“
Kate Gaul
Venue: Capitol Theatre
Sydney
Dates: Until Feb 9
Peter and the Starcatcher is a play based on the 2004 novel “Peter and the Starcatchers” by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, adapted for the stage by Rick Elice. The play provides a backstory for the characters of Peter Pan, Mrs Darling, Tinker Bell and Hook, and serves as a prequel to J. M. Barrie’s Peter and Wendy. It was originally a Disney developed work and hales from the 2021 – 2014 period. I mention this because while watching its Australian premiere courtesy of Queensland’s Dead Puppets Society I wondered why this why now?
I guess it’s a charming story of the origins of Peter Pan. It offers great possibilities as an ensemble piece. This production feels like to belongs in a studio (sans volume turned up to 10) not a commercial theatre stage. The staging techniques are smaller in scale with limited scenic and staging elements to play with – all deliberate decisions. Lovely on their own but lost in a production that is yearning to be bigger and bolder. The huddle of musician’s upstage centre is a delight but from the stalls the full-size upright pianos block the view of anything that might be happening from the band. The cast is an interesting mix of theatre heavyweights with the likes of Alison Whyte, John Batchelor, Lucy Golbey, Ryan Gonzalez – who bring first rate story-telling and characterisation to the stage – pitted against consummate comedians Colin Lane and Pete Helliar. Essentially and thankfully the comedy wins out and this production is basically a panto experience. There is plenty of the adults to chuckle too. We never quite get a “he’s behind you” but almost…. Colin Lane is a laugh a minute and once the confusion about what this show is passes there are laughs a plenty.
The English accents are incredibly grating – why can’t this story be told in our voices??? And they are inconsistent – perhaps a deliberate comedic touch? The work’s sexual politics have been well critiqued since it first premiered off Broadway. To see a young woman (playing a 13-year-old) at the beck and call of three hapless boys (even when we and she know she is braver, stronger and possibly more intelligent) was mind numbing. Molly in this production has more agency than her counterpart in the original “Peter Pan” but not much. I couldn’t figure out who the Molluskes were until I realised this was a rendition/interpretation of the island’s “natives”. Ouch!!!
The performances are committed, the costumes colourful and the puppetry is serviceable. If you love a broad stroke panto this show is for you.
Kate Gaul, Theatre Now
