"innovative, exuberant, delightful, and charming"

August 16, 2003 performance reviewed by Frances Benn Hall

No matter how many times you and your children have seen Peter Pan, you have never seen such an innovative, exuberant, delightful, and charming production as that now playing at the BTF under Eric Hill's direction.

The script is a new magical version by John Caird and Trevor Nunn, a play with music rather than a musical. And in this production the delightful Tinker Bell is on stage not only as a light and sound but joyously, and at times wickedly present, as a narrator (of many costumes) performed by the mime Bill Bowers, agile and ingenious, who keeps the shifts in mood and tempo sweeping along at a zesty pace, as the well-known story unfolds in some surprising ways.

As I listened to the chatter around me on the lawn during intermission, everyone was talking about the play and how delightful it was; a far cry from much usual intermission chatter. When I returned to my seat, the two little girls behind me, aged four and six, were eagerly awaiting Act II and informed me they had seen three videos of the play and just loved this one.

And well they might. This is a wonderful Peter Pan and one for grown-ups as well as children. It takes its images from flight and there is, of course, the magical flying of Peter and the children as they soar off to Never Never Land.

But the play is never earth-bound. The lost boys, the pirates, the Indians are ever on the go, and it seems they too must have wings and radar to steer them through the whirling events that keep unfolding.

Isadora Wolfe is Peter in his joyous freedom, his escape from time, indeed his escape from the confines of gravity. Peter flies even when not soaring on wires. He cannot be earth-bound. His every move, every pose is airy. He has for himself achieved his goal and will never grow up. And he will forever make sure that all children keep their innocence as long as they can, believe in fairies.

That mortals cannot keep this innocence is the sobering theme, poignantly expressed by the mother of the Darling children, who remembers innocence enough to always keep the window open so children can fly back, be welcomed home, be understood in their needs to fly. Kate Maguire is movingly "mother" in a role that zeroes in the adult theme of the play.

The adult theme is also present in the role of Mr. Darling (Walter Hudson) who in the play's opening is the "heavy" - the Father who knows best, who makes the rules. It is fitting that he ends up literally in the dog house. (Author James Barrie was devoted to his mother and the mother role wins out in this play.)

It is also fitting that Hudson reappear as the dreaded and dreadful Captain Hook in a magnificent purple costume and plumed hat and with a (detachable) hook for an arm. He is as evil a villain as any child could imagine and as buoyantly tuneful as any adult could wish.

Tara Franklin as Wendy is charming in her role as mother of the lost boys and later as mother of a daughter whom once a month she understands must spend a week in never-never-land until she too is old enough to grant such miracle to her daughter.

This is a stellar cast, all deserve individual citation and praise. Each lost boy has his distinct personality, each pirate his own villainy or cowardice, each Darling son his own well-played role.

And the animals are utterly delightful. Nana, beloved dog nursemaid is played by Margot E. Littlefield so engagingly one wants to take her home; and in Never Never Land she becomes the crocodile in one of the most exotic and imaginative costumes in the play.

The costumes for this play are some of the most exotic designed for BTF plays by designer Olivera Gajic. The stilted ostrich that stalks the stage in which the airy white bedroom of the Darlings has magically become the leafy forest of Never Never Land, is alone worth a trip to the play.

But there is much more to come. The Indians who guard the boys against the pirates are bigger than life and grotesquely handsome. Their musical number, danced, is pure magic.

As is apparent this production is almost impossible to describe. The whole concept defies description. It not only fills the stage but spills over into the aisles.

The home of Wendy in Never Never Land is built on stage while we watch but is also present and imagined from above and below ground.

The stylized movement, brilliant in the dance scenes and especially so in the duel between Pan and Hook, grows out of Hill's study of the Japanese Suzuki movement training which many of this cast have studied with him.

This is definitely the high spot of the season at the BTF, and it would be a shame if audiences did not understand that while children will delight in it, it has great appeal for adults and messages for them that children do not need to heed.

Evening performances wisely start at 7:30 making the play over by ten and thus an ideal outing for children. And there are, as well, several matinees.

This production is indeed a remarkable one and one it would be a pity to miss. Indeed your children may beg to be taken back to a second viewing because so much goes on that it almost impossible to take in all the glorious details as they unfold or for the adults to appreciate how much raw talent is cavorting on the BTF stage.

Go. Marking the 75th glorious years the BTF has served the Berkshires, it is a gem!!!!