Barbican Theatre

Ella Hickson’s Wendy-centric RSC retelling of JM Barrie’s classic tale of lost boys, pirates, a ticking crocodile and perpetual childhood finally lands in London after premiering in Stratford-upon-Avon over a decade ago. However, some clunky characterisation and awkward modernisation mean that it never truly soars. Original director Jonathan Munby’s production is certainly visually sumptuous. From the vintage toy-filled nooks and crannies of the children’s nursery to the colourfully salvaged look of Neverland, Colin Richmond’s set is a playbox spilled delightfully across the stage. And Taiki Ueda’s video design of crashing waves and twinkling stars pattern atmospherically across the theatre as the children fly or fight Captain Hook. There’s also a bold directness to some of the changes that Hickson makes to the story. Here, Wendy and her brothers go with Peter to find the brother they ‘lost’ a year ago. Barrie’s tale of ageless children who had fallen out of their prams was always a ghost story beneath the fairy dust, with mortality haunting everyone from Hook to Wendy, being shot out of the sky. This version sets the emotional stakes high from the start.  It's also refreshing to see Wendy reject the role of ‘mother’ assigned unquestioningly to her by the Lost Boys, paralleled by her mother’s determination to forge her own life as a seamstress in scenes in early twentieth-century London. Unfortunately, Hannah Saxby only really has one note of stressed-out exasperation to...