Think you know Peter Pan? Think again. This production eschews the trite white middle-class London Georgian house setting, replete with piano enhanced drawing room and received pronunciation, served up in cinemas for the last seventy years. This is a collision of J. M. Barrie’s classic tale of ‘the boy who never grows up’ with Tracey Beaker, set on the streets of Birmingham and in the Neverland of The Rep. And it all works rather well.

The man behind the reimagination is Liam Steel, with Georgia Christou assisting with the adaptation. Their retelling of the narrative is a reading for our times, set in an inner-city foster home with a diverse cast. It is told from a perspective that emphasises Wendy’s internal quest to retain something of her youth rather than Pan’s refusal to grow up. The result is something that was not just thoroughly entertaining at the time but stayed in my thoughts all the way home and after. Though I am not persuaded by the idea that children are unable to relate to social settings outside of their own experience, I do think that the social and emotional poignancy of the setting helps to fully realise Wendy’s fantasy as an escape from a harsh reality.

This is a show that is aimed at the whole family, and while adults might take an interest in how the novel has been reinterpreted, I suspect children will be more interested in the entertainment. They won’t be disappointed. There is a lot of fun and spectacle. Successfully shying away (almost) from the sort of audience participation that one gets with pantomime, there is plenty of humour and enough pace in the direction to keep the momentum going. A couple of witty ad libs, and some crowd-pleasing local references all helped, but so too did the comic timing and performance of Mirabelle Gremaud as Tink. Ms Gremaud also has a soulful plaintive voice as her rendition of Nat King Cole’s Nature Boy demonstrated.

There were other competent performances too, with Lawrence Walker holding his own as Peter Pan, and Nia Gwynne wisely not over-doing Captain Hook as a pantomime baddy. The strongest performer for me, was Cora Tsang as Wendy. Her role was pivotal to the success of this reimagining and she was able to carry the audience with her at all times. The cast in ensemble were energetic and entertaining and gelled well together.

This was a production that was made successful by the staff we did not see on stage as it was by those we did see. The set, the staging, the fight direction, the puppets, the props and the rigging were all essential elements. Although no attempts were made to disguise the use of ropes in the flying scenes, it did not matter. We wanted to see the children fly and once we got used to seeing the ‘shadows’ hooking up their characters, we forgot about it and just enjoyed our imaginations. The set was designed by Michael Pavelka and constructed by Margaret Rees, who in the programme notes describes it as “one of the biggest sets we’ve ever produced”. I can well believe it, and I was impressed.

I was perhaps less impressed with the music and dance. It was fun and energetic and enjoyable, but cannot be compared to the higher end musical productions. This is a play with a song and a dance thrown in rather than a musical per se, so if that expectation is clear it won’t distract from the experience. This was an entertaining and thoughtful reimagining, good family entertainment and it gave me more than I expected.      ★★★★☆    Robert Gainer   6^th December  2019