Wendy & Peter Pan - Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford
[gallery] There is one line in J M Barrie's unsettling tale of lost boys that most productions avoid.
Not this one. As Peter Pan falls, apparently mortally wounded, he declares: "To die will be an awfully big adventure."
Jonathan Munby's production of Ella Hickson's adaptation operates on two distinct levels.
For the kids, there's a rollicking yarn, with a feminist twist, of swordfights and torture, as Wendy (Fiona Button) rallies the feisty females Tink (Charlotte Mills) and Tiger Lily (Michelle Asante) to wage war on a satisfyingly nasty Captain Hook (Guy Henry).
For the grown-ups there is an overlay of tragedy (this play begins with the death of one of the Darling family's boys), marital misery, sexual awakening and the hint that Hook, blind to the gay-crush of his adoring Smee (Gregory Gudgeon), is slyly grooming the 13-year-old Wendy.
Fiona Button is simply terrific as Wendy and Sam Swann's Peter Pan is a wildly energetic and compelling man-boy.
There's an astonishing array of special effects and illusions.
The flying is impressive but wait until you see the RST's magnificent stage break in half to expose Pan's fabulous den and then turn into a choppy sea as a huge pirate ship sails in from the wings.
This production is breathtaking, imaginative, word-perfect, darkly bewitching and supremely confident, a show that adults and kids alike will remember for the rest of their lives. Wendy & Peter Pan is at Stratford until March 2.
By Peter Rhodes
