"Peter Pan" - December 2007

No wasting time here at View From The Stalls - 1st day of December and we're opening the advent calendar, sorting Christmas shopping, and off to see the first of our four Christmas shows this month. "Peter Pan" at the Citizens seemed a good place to start and had the promise of Andrew Clark as Hook (who impressed us as Hamlet.)

Clark duly delivered, and was a suitably villainous nemesis for Peter and managed to elicit spontaneous boos and hisses from the audience (possibly unexpectedly). Robbie Towns gave a very physical performance as Peter, while Helen Mallon's very Glaswegian Wendy provided much of the show's humour. But there were issues with the sound levels and the clarity of some of the dialogue - even in the middle of the stalls. Although this was the first night, it wasn't labeled as a preview, and I'd hope this is addressed as the run progresses.

In a show like this it's often not the performances that make or break it, and while I'd be reluctant to go so far as to call it disappointing, there were certainly a good number of missed opportunities. Much of it was slow paced, particularly in the first act and only really the scenes with Nana the dog (Finn Den Hertog) had the energy to really grab the audience. The energy levels pick up in the second act when Tinkerbell is revived with some audience participation, and it's a bit odd that this non-panto is at it's best when it strays towards pantomime territory. But the writing isn't sufficiently sharp, and the Glasgow references, which always go down well, were too few and far between.

There is much to like here with certain elements very well realised - Tinkerbell is marvellously portrayed as a sparkle of light and in a particularly nice segment is 'moved' from hand to hand between the Lost Boys. The moments when Wendy, Michael and the boys are captured by Hook work well in silhouette (although a little muffled), the 'fly by wire' is very well performed a number of times, and a rendition of "Flower of Scotland" brings much amusement. The set is also very effective.

But other aspects fall short. The Crocodile really didn't work for me, the fencing seemed a little on the tame side, and the 'explosion' was pretty pathetic, while the cannons that dropped from the side of the ship sat unused when they were crying out to fire confetti into the audience.

Waldorf is of the opinion that it suffered from not knowing what it wanted to be - show or pantomime and I'd probably agree. It doesn't have the belly laughs a panto can provide or the ability to capture the children in the audience with a stunningly enthralling story, and I guess I expected a little more from the Citz.

"Peter Pan" runs at the Citizens until 5th January.