Peter Pan, written by J. M. Barrie and performed by the Cheshire Academy Varsity Players, was phenomenal. Peter pan is the story of the Darling family and the children’s imagination. The play starts in the nursery where Mrs. Darling tucks the children into their beds before leaving for a night out with Mr. Darling. Nana is present in the scene to assist Mrs. Darling until Mr. Darling enters and acts rudely to nana. He first feeds nana his medicine and then proceeds to put him in the dog house. After Mr. and Mrs. Darling exit the stage, Peter enters the stage through the open window seeking his shadow with Tinker Bell accompanying him. Wendy wakes up and Peter offers to take her and her brothers to Neverland to meet the lost boys. He wants Wendy to be their mother and to tell them stories. In Neverland, Wendy, Peter and the lost boys meet Captain Hook and his fellow pirates. Captain Hook hopes to get revenge on Peter Pan for flinging his hand to the dreaded crocodile. The pirates capture the lost boys and Wendy. Peter Pan fights the pirate and rescues Wendy and the lost boys. Peter knows Wendy, Michael and John must go home. Wendy, Michael and John like Neverland and they don’t want to leave, but they must return home to their worried mother. Their mother is pleased that they return. Wendy asks to go back and her mother says she can return once every year. Each year isn’t the same as the first because Wendy is growing up and Peter stays a young boy not wanting to grow up.
I enjoyed the Cheshire Academy Varsity Players performance of Peter Pan. I thought the casting was very well done. Each actor did a great job at their part. In addition, each actor looked like they were enjoying themselves both in the rehearsals that I visited and on the night of the performance. The chemistry on stage was also apparent that all of the actors got along well with each other. I especially liked William as Nana. He is very fun and open to doing funny things off stage and it was fun to see him portray this role on stage too. This idea of being funny and having a good time on stage stayed true to all of the class and was also extremely apparent in Michael (Maddy) and Peter (Erin). I also loved the costuming. From my experience working in the black box, I know how hard it is to come with the perfect costumes. I was very impressed. The costumes portrayed the characters well, from Wendy’s (Wiebke) giry nightgown to Michael’s (Maddy) plaid footy-pajamas to the lost boys and their camouflage colored shirts and pants. In addition, Smee (Abby) and Captain Hook (Charlotte) had very detailed color-coordinated costumes. I only have two negative things to say. One is that the scene changes looked very chaotic to the audience. I know there was a lot of difficult scene changes because of the amount of detail on the set, but it looked very unorganized. Some changes were more organized than others but I would suggest that each person be assigned a particular prop of group of props that they are responsible for placing. It looked like their wasn’t much communication or organization. It looked, to me, like the crew brought out boxes of set pieces and props and everyone grabbed whatever they could to place. The only other thing I have to say is the lighting and cues needed a little bit of work. The lighting was good especially during the Captain Hook part with the red lights. The timing and placement needs to be fixed. There were a couple miscues, and the people sitting in the front row were blinded a few times when the spotlight moved. I know I attended during opening night and these problems might resolve themselves over the course of the shows. Also take into account that I am a stage manager, so I have a particular eye towards the crew. Overall, the performance was very good. The cast and crew should be proud of what they accomplished.
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