Peter Viney's Blog

A Mischief Theatre Production
Direct From The West End

Written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer & Henry Shields
Directed by Adam Meggido
Set Design by Simon Scullion
Costume by Roberto Surace
Composition – Richard Baker & Rob Falconer

Theatre Royal, Bath
Thursday 28th November 2019, 14.30

CAST

Katy Daghorn – Sandra, who plays Wendy Darling
Tom Babbage – Max,  who plays Michael Darling, Mermaid, crocodile
Ciaran Kellgren – Jonathan who plays Peter Pan
Oliver Senton – Robert Groves – co-director of the play, Nana The Dog, Peter Pan’s shadow, Starkey
Connor Crawford – Chris Bean, President of Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society / Mr Darling / Captain Hook
Romayne Andrews – Dennis, who plays John Darling, Mermaid, Mr Smee
Phoebe Ellabani – Annie who plays Mrs Darling, Lisa, Tinkerbell, Tiger Lily
Ethan Moorhouse – Trevor, the stage manager of Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society
Georgia Bradley- Lucy, who plays Tootles
Patrick Warner-  Francis, The Narrator and Cecco

Understudies / ensemble
Eboni Dixon – ensemble
Christian James – ensemble
Soorosh Lavasani- ensemble
Ava Pickett – ensemble

They’re doing FOUR matinees in the week. That’s unprecedented. It was on TV a couple of Christmases ago, with David Suchet as narrator, and we have seen that version twice – we recorded it.  Then in London, the wonderful Tom Edden narrated. The basis of such a physical and set dependent production means that changing casts work. The flier describes it As Half Seen On BBC One. Indeed there is more. One issue is the change of casts, but I’ve tried to get 2019 tour images. They have maintained the casting concept strongly- the actors remain physically similar.

It’s hard to compare the genre except with the others from Mischief Theatre, The Play That Goes Wrong and The Comedy About A Bank Robbery. Noises Off is the best known forbear, though I’d cite the influence of Morecambe and Wise trying to do serious plays, and some sketches from The Two Ronnies – there’s one about a local butcher who is drafted into the village amateur play and has to read the part from text. It’s done here doubly. First, Dennis playing John Darling can’t learn lines so has a headset and has to repeat what he hears. Later the stage manager has to replace the injured Peter Pan and read his lines.

They proclaim THIS IS NOT A PANTOMIME. J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan refused to be called a pantomime too, preferring to be ‘A Christmas Entertainment.’ A running joke is that we, the audience, shout out Oh, Yes it is! and He’s behind you! to the fury of Robert, the supposed director of the play.

The ultimate star of the show is the set, and all the incredible stuff that happens with it. I’m not plot spoiling, you need to see it, but doors, bunk beds, pirate ships, a table, windows, flying, electric shocks, people carthing fire. There’s a backstage crew of seven, doing the actual technical work, as well as the ensemble who are acting as technicians.

It requires extraordinary precision timing to work and it got it. The BBC version was live in front of an audience but this is right in front of you on stage, and therefore even more astonishing. It is longer. I don’t recall the British pantomime staple of “black theatre” in the TV one- this is the luminous creatures at the bottom of the sea.

Phoebe Ellabani as Anne, here playing  Tinkerbell – she also plays Mrs Darling, Lisa, and Tiger Lily.

The other pleasure is that the actors are playing the characters of the members of the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society. Their fictional bios come within its own programme which is within the theatre programme. Then they add on their roles in Peter Pan.

Phoebe Ellani excels as Annie, who is playing Mrs Darling AND the maid Lisa with two-second costume changes between exits and entrances in a new character. It does, of course, go wrong. Then she’s Tinkerbell and Tiger Lily.

Peter and Tinkerbell

Tom Babbage is Max, who always hoped to play Peter Pan but had to play John Darling and The Crocodile. The thing is Max desperately fancies Sandra (Katy Baghorn) who is playing Wendy. Trouble is, Wendy is having an affair with Jonathan (Ciaron Kellgren) who got the part of Peter Pan. Jonathan however is pretty free with his favours and turns them upon Annie as Tinkerbell. Amateur dramatics can be full of such tensions!  Wendy is that well-known amateur thespian, the would be star. She dances, she sings. She prances about.

Katy Baghorn playing Sandra playing Wendy,  and Ciaron Kellgren playing Jonathan playing Peter.

The producer Chris (Connor Crawford), and the co-director, Robert (Oliver Senton) have taped the sound effects for the play, but being inept, their unedited conversations get played over the sound system. We discover that Max is only in  it because his family are paying towards the company’s productions, and that they all think he’s a prat. Max has to stand on stage and hear this. We needed no prompting whatsoever, nor did we need prompting to say “Aah!” over the unhappy and lovelorn Max, condemned to play the crocodile. In pantomime terms, Max is Buttons in Cinderella, yearning for the heroine, though in this he does better than Buttons did.

One switch from the BBC is that the story about disasters in a previous production (I think) got shifted from The Narrator.

Great stuff. Slightly relentless in the second half, but undoubtedly 5 star.

*****

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID:

3 star
Lynn Gardner, The Guardian *** (2015, London)

Over the years, I’ve seen plenty of Peter Pans going wrong, on occasion crash-landing with a spectacular lack of concern for the cast’s future careers and an audience’s desire to ever venture inside a theatre again. Those mishaps were, of course, unintentional. Here, Mischief Theatre know exactly what they are doing, playing on the audience’s pleasure in backstage and onstage catastrophes.

SEE ALSO:

The Play That Goes Wrong, on tour, Salisbury 2017