STAGE
Peter Pan, Meridian Gardens, The O2
3/5
IN A NUTSHELL
The family favourite is brought bang up to date with hi-tech wizardry that takes you on the same high-flying journey as the puck-ish hero.
REVIEW
Discussing movies recently, director Sam Mendes said: "They asked me if I was excited about the possibilities of 3D production. I said that I already do 3D. It's called theatre."
Peter Pan at Meridian Gardens is pitched squarely at achieving the best of both worlds.
This technically intriguing production of JM Barrie's classic combines the usual fly-by-wire work with set designer William Dudley's impressive 360 degree digital CGI panorama projected on to the roof of a tent, which sits like a mini-me beside The O2.
So when Peter takes the jittery children out of Kensington Gardens towards Neverland, we all take the same swooping, swaying, exhilarating Poppins-esque journey above London, swerving left to avoid the dome of St Paul's and ducking low to avoid cracking our heads on Tower Bridge. The effect is that of a Disney Studios ride and it earned spontaneous applause.
And it doesn't end there. We're underwater suddenly, or we're ducking a cannonball or we're sitting pretty amid in a colourful island setting.
So this is a perfect production for those kids who can't absorb anything that doesn't come in pixels. But, happily, director Ben Harrison doesn't fall back on the technical wizardry to swing the deal.
In fact, the puppets - Nanny et al - are delightfully lo-fi Heath Robinson affairs, with an air of charm that eludes the digital world. The crocodile is no more than a chicken coop with attitude but when the thing sees off Hook and belches with sonorous majesty, no-one's checking out its physiology for human appendages.
The cast aims to match the technical theatrics in a very physical, gung-ho production*.
Everyone's forever ducking and diving and stamping and soaring and the choreography and staging makes for a slick big top spectacle. The sacrifice is some of the charm and intimacy of the play - another whooping gimmick is often substituted for childish wonder and motion replaces emotion as the driving force.
Still, we have Jonathan Hyde stealing the show as a raffish Captain Hook and a game Abby Ford as a winning Wendy. Ciaran Kellgren's bouncy Peter can be little more than a cipher but Sandra Maturana makes a nod to more modern sensibilities with a tomboyish Tinkerbell.
The pirates and the Lost Boys bring a brutish bang, crash and wallop to the piece counterbalanced by two ethereal mermaids who beguile with their swishy mid-air gymnastics.
The vast tent affair is a blessing and a curse. There's something of a magical winter wonderland about the whole place - foyer and all - but the acoustics are shot and, occasionally, it's difficult to pick out what the characters are saying, especially as the show's in the round. Meanwhile, aeroplanes coming into London City Airport remind the audience that flying isn't all wishful thinking and a hundred feet of unencumbered leg room.
But this is a jolly, upbeat, energetic production, not as involving as a pantomime, not as distant as a play. Barrie's nostalgia for childhood may be swamped but his boyish quest for adventure finds a next-gen outlet (there's even a neat nod to The Matrix's "bullet-time").
Of course, there is an important public safety message in there as well. It was a close run thing with Tinkerbell the night I went but we managed to turn it around in time. People, you've got to start reaffirming your belief in fairies on a regular basis otherwise we're looking at a significant loss of life over the next few weeks.
- Peter Pan runs at Meridian Gardens until January 10. Go to The O2's website.
* At this point, I was contractually obliged to use the phrase "the action is in tents" but I think I found a loophole.
