Presented as part of the Mill Theatre Co-Production Series, a program which provides an avenue for creatives to present their own work in the Mill Theatre space.
Reviewed by Frank McKone
September 10
Cast
In alphabetical order:
Wendy U/S, Swing: Aleksis Andreitchenko (she/her)
Wendy: Veronica Baroulina (she/her)
Tinker Bell: Chipz (they/them)
Lost Boy: Phoebe Fielden (she/her)
Tiger Lily: Sarah Hartley (she/her)
Peter Pan: Joshua James (he/him)
Mr Darling/Smee: Mark Lee (he/him)
Mrs Darling/Hook: Heidi Silberman (she/her)
Creative Team
Writer: Jeremy Bloom; Director: Rachel Pengilly (she/her)
Movement Director: Hannah Pengilly (she/her)
Composer & Sound Designer: Shannon Parnell (she/her)
Set & Costume Designer: Helen Wojtas (she/her)
Lighting Designer: Jacob Aquilina (he/him)
Stage Manage: Hannah Pengilly (she/her)
Assistant Stage Managers: Sophie Hope-White (she/her) & Ciara Ford (she/her)
Intimacy Coordinator: Chipz (they/them)
Marketing and Publicity: Liv Blucher (she/her)
Vocal Coach: Lexi Sekuless (she/her)
Singing Tutor: Petronella van Tienen (she/her)
Consulting Artist: Julia Grace (she/her)
Co-Producers: Ribix Productions and Lexi Sekuless Productions by permission of ORiGiN™ Theatrical on behalf of Playscripts, Inc and Broadway Licensing Global
Principal Sponsor: Willard Public Affairs; Media Partner: Darkhorse Creative
Further credits found here: https://www.ribixproductions.com.au/peter-wendy/
You can read the original playscript of Peter Pan; or, The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up at https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300081h.html
Or you can also read the book called Peter and Wendy at https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Peter_and_Wendy/yhbTEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA2&printsec=frontcover
Peter/Wendy seems to have drawn on both. J M Barrie writes as if he, in reality, is living in a fantasy land. His play has hugely long stage directions which seem impossible to fulfill, while his novel describes the characters in excruciating psychological details that are hard to accept.
At this point in my reading, Barrie seems either an early 20th Century absurdist or an unpleasant social satirist.
At https://www.playscripts.com/play/2714 you will find Jeremy Bloom’s script, “adapted from the works of J M Barrie”, which is described as a “lyrical, atmospheric interpretation of Peter Pan, [in which] Jeremy Bloom strips the familiar story down to its emotional essence. Peter lures Wendy away from her nursery to the magical world of Neverland, where she joins his adventures with Tinker Bell, Tiger Lily, and the menacing Captain Hook. A low-tech, inventive adaptation that pays homage to the darker themes of J. M. Barrie's original”.
And I am pleased to report that Rachel Pengilly and her team of designers and actors have succeeded in creating that ‘emotional essence’ in the relationship between Wendy and the faeries, and reveal the need in an imaginative young daughter to psychologically escape the ‘standard’ parents’ assumptions about parenting. They are not the darlings that their name suggests.
This justifies a positive answer to the question we might ask: why present stage material written in that ‘different country’ more than 100 years ago? It’s because that need for escape – to grow up – is as relevant today as then; and perhaps more so in a world where a modern Peter will be on Wendy’s social media feed, while her parents have no idea of the Captain Hooks and Tinker Bells she come across. It’s a worry – and we feel it as Peter/Wendy ends as the dawn begins.
On the practical theatre side, the set design, the detailed complex choreography in using all the symbolic items of Peter’s world of adventures, and the lighting and sound, created the fantasy world very successfully, showing a high degree of originality which, for me, solved those stage direction difficulties I saw in Barrie’s script.
Especially important, and highly successful was the casting. Apart from all the tricky acting in the fast moving changes for the whole cast, Wendy and Peter looked and felt absolutely right in their parts.
The Mill Theatre writes it is “excited to announce the first co-production of 2025”, and I say the more the merrier, especially for the young people on stage and in the audience. This production is full of life, auguring well for the future of Ribix Productions.
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| Veronica Baroulina as Wendy in Peter/Wendy Ribix Productions, 2025 |
