Peter Pan Review
From Cuddington Youth Drama
The following review of Peter Pan from the March 2010 edition of Cuddington's Village Voice, written by John Fortgang, appears by kind permission of the editors.
Boy flies through hall window!
From the 16th to the 21st February Cuddington was able to experience the joys (and tribulations) of being a child without any of the guilt when the Youth Drama Group put on a musical version of Barrie's Peter Pan in the Bernard Hall.
Unsurprisingly all five nights were a sell-out; certainly on the night we went the hall was full of mums, dads and siblings, creating an atmosphere of excitement. There were also some terrifying pirates shouting "Aar Jim lad", and a number of fairies.
Before the curtain rose a full orchestra (or practically) under the direction of Gary Hawkins got the evening going with appropriate music and away we went.
Although the original story was written in 1904, this musical adaptation was written by Piers Chater-Robinson in the 1990's. The music was largely light-hearted but did not interfere with the story, which moved along very quickly with lots of noise and movement on the stage. Full use was made of the whole hall, with characters running up and down the aisle, to the delight of the audience. And a most realistic (but happily friendly) crocodile also wound its way round the auditorium, but ate hardly anyone.
How about the flying, without which no Peter Pan story would be complete? Not wanting to incur the wrath of our friends from Health & Safety the director (Elaine English) cunningly made use of one of the dads by dressing him in black and having him act as an aeroplane, carrying the fliers above his head - surprisingly effective.
Both scenery (Georgiana Dacombe and Chris Long) and the variety of costumes (Pauline Sullivan) were very professional, as was the quality of the sound (Chris Long and Bethan James).
The scenes shifted from the home of the Darling family, to Never Land, a mermaids' lagoon, an Indian camp, a pirates' ship and the Lost Boys' hideout - all very well depicted.
The Mermaids in particular deserve special mention; their scene (set on very realistic rocking waves that made most of the audience sea-sick) showed them looking something like the Spice Girls and singing appropriately. We all expected Simon Cowell to stand up and tell them they were through to the next round.
When Tinkerbell sadly dies the audience is naturally enjoined to shout loudly that they all believe in fairies; happily they all did so and Tinkerbell was brought back to us.
Both acting and singing (not an easy combination for most youngsters) was of a high standard. Ilona Ecott and Charlie Titchen (Wendy and Peter Pan respectively on our night) were particularly good. In fact there were two alternate casts for the different nights, although most of the cast had a larger or smaller part each night.
Congratulations to all of the people, large and small, named in the very comprehensive programme for all their contributions (including the very well-stocked bar!)
We look forward to the next production.
John Fortgang
