Review: Peter Pan – National Theatre of Scotland

Peter Pan was always one of my favourite stories as a child. Who am I kidding, It’s still one of my favourite stories. The pirates, the sword fights, the mermaids, the fairies… It’s a camp straight man’s dream. The wish to never grow up is something that I still cling on to now. I’m in my mid twenties and I still occasionally rock out with a Bob the Builder wrist watch. Why would anyone want to grow up? According to Peter Pan, a world in which you never grow up is a world where magic exists, where fights never result in injury or death (unless you’re a bad guy) and where you can fly. Between Peter Pan, Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland, I’m sitting somewhere in my ideal world.

I don’t want to live in David Greig’s Neverland.

This production, adapted from the original by David Greig for National Theatre of Scotland, has been reimagined slightly. First off, the obvious points. No longer are we in London. Instead, we have been transported to Victorian Edinburgh and the building of the Forth Bridge. However, it’s not just the location and the accents that have changed. With the move to Scotland, comes a much darker play than the original. This isn’t for kiddies any more. First off, Pan isn’t the cheerful, naive character from the Disney film. Instead we have a clear reference to Pan, the Greek god of mischief, with his animal-skin shorts and his horned hairdo. Similarly, Captain Hook is no longer a stereotypical ostentatious pirate. Instead, we have a more local idea of a pirate, a ruthless, menacing, skinheaded, heavily tattooed ruffian. This is the kind of man you would not want to meet in a dark alley. In fact, the only characters that have transferred relatively intact are Michael, John and Wendy, with the rest shedding their caricatured state and adopting more realistic, human and ultimately flawed characters. The closest comparison you could draw in style is probably Lord of the Flies.

Overall, this production of Peter Pan is quite dark, visually and thematically. The lighting very rarely fills the stage, and is quite often made to make it seem like Scotland very rarely sees the sun (No sun in the UK? Really?), something that West End Whingers seem to dislike slightly. I, on the other hand, loved the effect this had. The colour palette and the dank mood lighting set the tone perfectly. It made it very apparent that this time we weren’t watching Disney. Thematically, it starts off on a similar path to the original. These boys are lost and therefore won’t grow up. Tinkerbell is jealous of Wendy. Hook wants Pan dead. I’m comfortable with this, I know this. Sure, there are a few nods to adult(ish) humour, my personal favourite being Peter’s rather male-bravado infused ‘They’re my gang‘ to impress Wendy, but for the most part this is still Peter Pan. After the first act, however, things change a little. People die (rather gruesomly), there’s a bit of blood and Peter borders on the psychotic. In short, it starts out with dark edges in the first act, then throws a tin of black paint on the rest in the second.

The set design was lovely. What starts off as the beginnings of the Forth Bridge swings around to become trees/caves/pirate ships and are abstract enough to actually pull it off with a few extra props hung off them. The music was pretty, comprising mostly of sea shanties and homages to traditional Gaelic songs, and managed to firmly plant the piece in one particular place (Scotland) and one particular time (some time before today). Annie Grace and Alasdair Macrae, when not in Mrs Darling/Smee modes, complemented the scenes and set changes perfectly with an array of instruments and gorgeous lilting/grating and suitably piratey melodies.

The standouts within the cast was very clearly Kevin Guthrie as Pan. He seemed to constantly switch between naive boy and absolute psychopath who refuses to be touched or grow up. His absolutely dominated the stage every time he walked on it and managed to enthral me with every word. His boyish charms and good looks didn’t hurt either. However, when he turned dark, he really turned dark. The final scene in particular left chills down my neck which was not only carried by the inspired writing, but also by the stellar performance. Cal MacAninch did a rather beige job of Mr Darling. However, his turn at Hook was extremely menacing and worked perfectly. The menace in all his actions, particularly in the second half, were spot on and made him a character you hated, yet also made him intriguing and a little bit attractive. Another standout was Tinkerbell. The inspired use of flame was fantastic and was one true piece of magic onstage, considering the ‘flying’ was intentionally not masked at all.

All in all it was a very enjoyable night at the theatre, and I didn’t manage to nod off once. I found it a brilliant experience to revisit a beloved text of mine in a different light, and for the most part I enjoyed the darker side of the story.

Even if I don’t particularly remember Peter sticking knives through teddy bears in the original.

Peter Pan is playing at the Barbican until 29 May, and then heads north. Check it out if you get the chance.