Peter and the Starcatcher by Rick Elice. Directed by David Morton. Musical director James Dobinson. A Dead Puppet Society, Glass Half Full Productions, Jones Theatrical Group and Damien Hewitt production. Canberra Theatre. The Playhouse. October 15-27.

Peter and the Starcatcher is a whirlwind of a show, combining live action with spectacular puppetry and music and the good old fashioned comedy and magic of the panto. 

You will only find echoes of J.M.Barrie’s original tales of Peter Pan here but time and waves of adaptation for stage and film have swept his work to the side. This is in fact a prequel and an origin story, putting Peter (Otis Dhanji) and Molly (Olivia Deeble) (the mother of Wendy) together in a tale that is both funny and beautiful to look at. 

Deeble’s self reliant and acrobatic Molly is a practical and amusing heroine and Dhanji has a growing presence as the boy who will become Peter Pan. The large cast includes stage and media veterans like Alison Whyte as Molly’s father  the pragmatic Lord Aster, Lucy Goleby as Molly’s resourceful and good humoured nurse Mrs Bumbrake, Colin Lane as the dreaded pirate captain (and lover of bad jokes) Black Stache, Pete Helliar as the none too bright Smee, John Batchelor as Mrs Bumbrake’s love interest Alf and the wise spectacularly costumed mermaid Teacher, and Paul Capsis popping up everywhere. (With that mad expressive face and wild hair he was born to play a pirate…)

Peter’s fellow orphans, the leadership obsessed Prentiss (Morgan Francis) and the pineapple clutching Ted (Benjin Maza), are sufficiently adrift to be clearly morphing into Lost Boys.  

In fact the whole cast is kept very busy and everyone seems to play everything from mermaids to pirates, while up the back of a set framed in circles the small and sometimes peripatetic orchestra subtly supports the action and the mood, even rising to the odd (and appropriate) old fashioned melancholy hymn. There are digs at the British Empire and colonialism and it is worth being across bits of history like the doomed South Pole expedition of Scott.

Around and among the humans roam the puppets. There are birds and sea creatures and shooting stars and of course a monstrous crocodile. Things get luminous, they fly, they interact with the humans. Visually this show is one for those of us who are always thinking ‘How did they do that?’ 

There were moments when the sound, particularly of voices , was not as crisp as it might have been but the mood and energy of the piece is always there, with plenty of room for the quieter and more emotional moments. 

Peter and the Starcatcher is a worthy entrant in the wide field of works inspired by J.M.Barrie’s original and an imaginative and enjoyable  show in its own right. Catch it before it moves on to a national tour. 

Alanna Maclean