Peter Pan struts but can't really fly

10 April 2012

The selling point of this Peter Pan, previously seen in Kensington Gardens, is William Dudley’s hugely ambitious design, in which lavish video combines with an aerial wizardry reminiscent of Cirque du Soleil.

Yet while the effects are intermittently spectacular — the 360-degree cyclorama shimmers with CGI projections — Ben Harrison’s production does not have much in the way of either heart or soul.

Part of the problem is Tanya Ronder’s adaptation, which is neither touching nor haunting. The staging in the round makes the production feel like a circus act, and JM Barrie’s original has been stripped of much of its pathos.

As Peter, Ciaran Kellgren is full of animal energy, puckish without being appealing. More enjoyable is Jonathan Hyde’s struttingly camp Captain Hook, and there’s busy work from the rest of the cast but the adults playing children are more than a little creepy. It’s symptomatic of this unsatisfactory reworking that Sandra Maturana’s Tinkerbell is a tomboy rather than a wispy sprite. The emphasis is on noisy physicality rather than on sensitivity. The setting does not help. The Meridian Gardens, in an obscure corner of the O2 Centre, are poorly insulated from outside noise, making subtle nuance nigh on impossible.

We may gasp as the children breeze east across London, circling above a vividly realised St Paul’s, and there are some other endearing moments (the crocodile is a delight, as are the mermaids), but this Peter Pan for all its visual dazzle lacks that subtler kind of magic that beguiles the emotions. The undeniably impressive technical achievements drown out what’s left of the story’s poignancy. An awfully big adventure it is not.

Until 10 January (020 7432 4220).

Peter Pan
02 Meridian Gardens
SE10

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