This Neverland’s bostin’

Peter Pan is the Christmas show at Birmingham Rep. ADRIAN CAFFERY gives his verdict

O you want an adventure? We’ll go and kill pirates!’’ says Peter Pan. ‘‘Pirates?’’ replies John. ‘‘In Bordesley Green?’’

Yes, in an imaginative re-telling, J M Barrie’s classic tale of the boy who never grows up has been transported from 1904 London to present day Birmingham.

The Darling children are living with their latest foster mother in an inner city flat – a far cry from the family idyll in middle class Bloomsbury they usually inhabit.

Oldest child Wendy is a troubled teenager who resents that she’s been forced to become a mother figure to her brothers John and Michael.

So when Peter Pan flies in promising to take her to a faraway land where she can recapture her youth the offer is too good to refuse.

But Neverland turns out to be a dangerous place filled with pirates, a man-eating crocodile, feisty fairies and even murderous mermaids. Visually, the show is spectacular.

One of the Rep’s biggest ever sets starts as a three-storey block of flats and transforms into the bow of a ship, via an underwater world and Skull Island.

And the flight work, with up to five actors soaring across the stage at any one time on bungee-type ropes, clearly requires a huge amount of choreography.

It’s not without risks, however. On Press Night, Wendy (Cora Tsang),suffered an unscripted bump which she bravely and professionally brushed off.

The three main protagonists, Wendy, Peter (Lawrence Walker) and Captain Jess Hook (Nia Gwynne) are all played with panache and

Hook (Nia Gwynne), Peter (Lawrence Walker) and Tink (Mirabelle Gremaud) in Peter Pan at the Rep

humour. So, too, was the deliberately incomprehensible Tinkerbell (contortionist Mirabelle Gremaud).

The show has been created specifically for Birmingham audiences by Olivier-nominated Liam Steel, who also reimagined The Wizard of Oz at the Rep last year.

Without wishing to give too much away, Liam’s Peter Pan borrows some of the essence of the Oz tale and in doing so improves on the original story.

Liam also draws some interesting parallels between the Lost Children and the Darlings, who it transpires have lost their mother to some sort of addiction.

While there is some weighty subject matter there is also plenty of lighthearted Christmas entertainment – ‘‘I believe in fairies!’’ we are all encouraged to shout.

If your kids are getting a little too old for a traditional panto, this Peter Pan would make an excellent, thought-provoking alternative Christmas show for them.

But all ages will be wowed by the sets and the aerial stunt work, not to mention the enormous crocodile, the detailed costumes and some catchy rap / rock numbers.

Recommended for children aged seven and over, it runs until January 19.