PETER PAN GOES WRONG
*****
New Theatre, Cardiff, Tues 5 Nov
What could possibly go wrong with everyone’s favourite fairytale of the boy who never grew up? Well, quite a lot, actually – at least when the Mischief Theatre company take the J.M. Barrie classic to the stage. The show centres around the Cornley Youth Theatre’s attempt to put on a professional production with disastrous results. So, it’s less about Peter Pan (a story we all know), and instead what happens when everything that could go wrong in a theatre production does.
And it is hilarious from start to finish. This rip-roaring combination of slapstick, farce and crazy acrobatics had the audience at Cardiff’s New Theatre in hysterics for virtually the entire performance. You barely have a chance to catch a breath before another major mishap befalls the cast. Not only do the Darling children nearly get crushed in their beds, Peter Pan fails to fly and Tinkerbell is nearly blown up!
Being able to pull off disaster on such a grand scale is no easy feat. The stunts and faux-accidents – be it being crushed by a piece of falling stage or strung up by flying apparatus – are so convincing that the audience is never quite sure how to react. One apparent health & safety bungle brings the curtain down for a whole five minutes in the middle of the show, leaving the audience wondering whether they should get their coats! The actors have no choice but to stoically press on amid the debris and disaster in a desperate bid to be taken seriously as the thespians they so want to be.
“It’s not a Panto!” one of the actors reminds us. “Oh, yes it is!” the audience chimes in. No, it’s not Panto at all – it’s much, much funnier!
words CLAIRE MAHONEY
Peter Pan Goes Wrong plays at the New Theatre, Cardiff until Sun 10 Nov. Tickets and info here.