Review: Peter Pan Goes Wrong
Edinburgh Playhouse ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The show must go on, but even as the audience takes their seats it’s clear that Cornley Drama Society are having problems as auditorium lights flicker and cables are woven through the stalls as the stage crew attempt to find an alternative power source. Mission accomplished, it’s show time, and what a show Peter Pan Goes Wrong turns out to be.
A laugh out loud full on farce, Mischief Theatre’s take on the JM Barrie classic is a rollicking couple of hours that, just when you think you’ve seen it all, ramps up the mayhem to new eye-wateringly hilarious levels.
As the tale of everyone’s favourite Lost Boy unfolds, problematical props, rogue spotlights, incompetent actors, stage-fright, faulty flying, wayward sound cues and cast injuries abound with dramatic and impeccably timed effect.
Thanks to writers Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, Henry Shields and director Adam Meggido who all share an innate understanding of low comedy, it’s a glorious parody of the worst am-dram production it could ever be your misfortune to see.
Another huge element of the show’s triumph is down to Simon Scullion’s beautifully conceived and excellently executed set design, which allows glimpses of the mayhem backstage and ensures a breath-taking set-piece that has to be seen to be believed.
As the set revolves (or doesn’t as the case may be), changing from the Darling children’s bedroom to the Forest of Neverland, the Enchanted Lagoon, Captain Hook’s ship and even a disastrous ultra-violet trip under the water, as the cast, each playing multiple roles, race to keep up.
In truth, the secret of the success of this production is its cast. As one they fully commit to the physical challenges thrown at them, embracing the opportunities to subvert their own training. They are magnificent.
John Michael Stacey as Mr Darling and Captain Hook, however, manages to steal the show with a ‘Fawltyesque’ tirade against the audience that descends into brilliantly ad-libbed badinage with those in the stalls. It’s a masterclass in improvisation and pantomime… although Peter Pan Goes Wrong is definitely not a panto, he insists. Oh, yes it is! Sort of.
Clark Devlin, playing the forgetful Dennis Tyde (playing John Darling, a mermaid and Mr Smee) makes great business of having his lines fed to him through an incongruous pair of headphones - the results are hilarious.
Jamie Birkett’s impossibly rapid quick changes and brilliant physical comedy skills provide many highly memorable moments too as her character, Annie, speeds between Mrs Darling, Lisa the maid and Tinker Bell, while Jean-Luke Worrell’s highly sensitive and occasionally trouserless Narrator sparkles.
Irreverent, overtly physical slapstick at its best, Peter Pan Goes Wrong proves that laughing really can be an awfully big adventure. Must See Theatre at its best.
Runs until Saturday 2 March. Tickets here.
