The Questors Theatre - Peter Pan (2006)

KEEPING IT YOUNG
Like the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican in the early 1980s and the National Theatre in the 1990s, we will be steering well clear of any pantomime tendencies. Instead, we aim to be closer to the spirit of J.M.Barrie's original masterpiece, recreating the mix of technical wizardry and childhood nostalgia which captivated generations of children (and ‘those who once were children’) throughout the past century.

We are following the RSC and the RNT in using the version adapted by John Caird and Trevor Nunn which introduced a Storyteller to allow the audience to share some of Barrie's wonderfully elaborate stage directions and asides. We have a somewhat younger cast than our illustrious predecessors (ie teenagers rather than adults playing the children) allowing us — as with Oliver! — to take advantage of one of The Questors' greatest assets, its talented Youth Group.

IT’S A BOY!
We have cast a boy rather than an actress as Peter Pan. This did not happen in any of Barrie's own stage productions, but research shows that he had hoped former Ealing ‘resident’ Charlie Chaplin might play the role in the 1920s silent movie. At the Barbican, the part was played by Mark Rylance. Stephen Oliver's incidental music, specially composed for the Caird/Nunn adaptation, will be performed by a Youth Orchestra drawn from Questors Youth Groups and Ealing Schools.

FLYING HIGH
"Ah, but what about the flying?" we hear you say. Well, we’ve never attempted flying on anything like this scale before.

The programme for the first ever performance in 1904, included the acknowledgement, “The flying machines supplied and worked by Mr. G. Kirby.” George Kirby was a master carpenter until founding the world's first company dedicated solely to the art of performer flying. To the audience of the day the flying was so realistic that the script had to be modified and a sprinkling of “fairy dust” was introduced to prevent children from launching themselves out of the nearest window. Successive generations of Kirbys took Peter Pan to America and developed George's systems into aerial ballet on stage and screen across the world. Read more about them online at www.kirbysflying.co.uk.

By a stroke of coincidence Kirby's Flying Ballets are still in existence and are today based in Hanwell, and they have generously agreed to support our production with equipment and advice.

So that’s another good reason to book your seats now — for the whole family — and all your friends!