Indulging my inner child is a priority of mine, so when I found out I had missed JM Barrie’s Peter Pan at Kensington Gardens Theatre I unashamedly stamped my feet a little. There is perhaps no place more apt to see such a literary masterpiece performed than Kensington Gardens, yet I was appeased by the knowledge that the 360 degree performance was being put on over Christmas in the Meridian Gardens at the O2.
Set in a constructed winter wonderland, the Meridian Gardens are a domed man-made winter landscape, like a Santa’s Grotto for grown-ups. The stage is tailor-made for this performance, with cubbyholes, rotating beds and disappearing props aplenty. The roof is a huge 3D screen, showing a panoramic view of the London skyline, complete with the classic window that features so prominently in the story.
As the lights go down, the voice of Mr Darling booms up the stairs before his familiar lean figure materializes and my childish excitement escalates. It is none other than Hunter Van Pelt! Jumanji being one of my not-so-secret guilty pleasures, I am overjoyed by this unexpected turn of events, especially as he turns out to be the strongest performer of the cast.
Initially irritated by the childish imitation of Wendy, after three minutes of dialogue I have completely forgotten my quarrel with her voice, and I'm utterly absorbed in the drama and magic of the show.
As the children take flight, the 360 degree screen really comes into action, depicting a moving starlit sky with such authenticity that I feel as close to flying as I am realistically going to get. The effect is similar to a simulator without the moving seats, and is not for those easily nauseated. We are taken past the second star to the right and straight on till morning, before the scenery changes and we are dropped into the Lost Boys hide out.
The flying is simply stunning, without being pretentious or saturating the play. The mid air antics are varied by providing the audience with an underwater scene. A palpably hard thing to convey, it's managed impressively well. Scantily clad mermaids suspended from above perform an array of beautifully crafted stunts whilst the actors ‘swim’ around them.
In short, the play completely engulfs you in Barrie’s magical, yet strangely logical world, transporting you back to childhood days where anything was possible. My only qualm with the effects of the show is the engineering of the animals. Somehow a man running around the stage with a dog puppet interrupts the magic of the play. Knowing that it would be altogether unreasonable to train a dog to act as a nanny reliably in a stage production does not quell my desire for him to do so. If Barrie says that it can be done, it must be possible! I suppose by this logic I’d be able to fly off to a magical place where I wouldn’t grow up. One can always hope...
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