Imagination runs riot
Peter Pan – improvised around a story by JM Barrie, directed by Dan Pengelly, Centrepoint Theatre, Palmerston North, July 7-29.
Peter Pan has never been so jolly rollicking. Over the past 114 years, the timeless tale about the non-ageing Neverland flyboy has been animated, danced, filmed, mercilessly pantomimed, and even has its own syndrome. But this Centrepoint Theatre production takes on the story with an entirely different approach. Directed by theatre chief Dan Pengelly, it has been cleverly re-imagined thanks to the creative powers of ensemble improvisation. Imagination combined with energetic physicality run riot and the hallmarks of Pengelly’s improv background at Court Theatre in Christchurch are everywhere. The ensemble cast are equally effective, whether they’re playing the scenery or chewing it. From being beds in the Darling household nursery – relocated from London to the Palmerston North suburb of Summerhill – they provide the lift so Peter, Tinkerbell, Wendy, John and Michael can fly. Then, as a crew of crazyclown pirates, they quickly transmute into a clan of Lost Boys, switch into mermaid mode, or become members of America’s ‘‘First Nations’’. Dave Fane of Naked Samoans, Bro’town, Sione’s Wedding and Wellington Paranormal fame, making his first appearance at Centrepoint since Niu Sila last decade, plays a compulsively eviscerating Captain James ‘‘Elizabeth’’ Hook, who suffers from clinical depression. The action flagged slightly in the second half – the young cast had performed an earlier matinee and will have to learn to pace themselves on those double-bill days. There is possibly a bit more overt adult and gender-inclusive humour than some parents could be expecting, but this Peter Pan is a tick-tock croczilla of a performance piece.