Peter Pan Goes Wrong does just what it says on the tin. The classic adventure story is brought once more to the stage but due care was not taken to keep the production up to health and safety standards . . .or many standards for that matter.

The conceit of the ‘Goes Wrong’ formula is that the actors and stage crew must persevere through the production no matter what. The actors will run afoul of the props, the set, the sound design, the script, and often each other – but despite this the show will go on. You essentially get a dual story as you follow Peter, Wendy et al. into Neverland alongside the tribulations of the exasperated director and his cast as they maim and humiliate themselves through the show.

The jokes are delivered thick and fast. The audience struggled to catch their breath for segments of the show. There is a great deal of precision required for a lot of the physical and technical gags which shows a degree of care which the cast go out of their way to obfuscate. The ongoing bewilderment of the players is as much a driver of the humour as the pratfalls throughout.

It is worth caveating that though the show is consistently funny from start-to-finish, this is not a critical and insightful effort of satire. The structure of the jokes relies on well-established formulae and essentially recycles the same categories of gags in different combinations and orders to sustain itself. I doubt anyone stony-faced enough to bemoan the pervasive buffoonery or the reliance on slapstick would actually attend Peter Pan Goes Wrong, but in case you have a crotchety uncle who can’t appreciate the simple pleasure of seeing an under-rehearsed understudy being conked out by piece of the set, this is not an exercise in Wildean wit.

In many ways scratching the itch for a grown-up Pantomime, Peter Pan Goes Wrong is a silly, raucous and entertaining jaunt.    ★★★★☆     Fenton Coulthurst   23^rd October 2019