Some childhood stories stay with us long after we’ve grown up; the one of the Boy Who Never Grew Up, unsurprisingly, is an iconic tale we’ll never quite outgrow. Peter Pan has seen many reiterations through the years, finding its feet on Broadway, movies, the Disney classics, and a whole slew of spin-offs. Now for the first time, he’ll be having his tale told in 1885 Singapore.
Peter and the Starcatcher was originally a Tony Award-winning play, based off the 2004 novel of the same name by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, and produced on Broadway by Disney Theatrical Productions. But it won’t be ending its run anytime soon on Pangdemonium’s watch. The local theater company is staging a localized adaptation of the play, and transporting Neverland to Southeast Asia for a fresh, multi-cultural take.
Running from Sep 28-Oct 20, the prequel to the Peter Pan legend follows Molly, a precocious young Starcatcher-in-training, and three orphans on a secret mission across pirate-infested seas, savages and mermaids, to a faraway island ruled by an evil king. Heads up: one of the orphans is a homeless, nameless lad referred to only as ‘Boy’—you can pretty much guess who he ends up to be. It may be a kid’s tale, but the cast certainly isn’t juvenile; look forward to a local and international cast starring Thomas Pang, Carina McWhinnie, Andrew Marko, Salif Hardie, Crispian Chan, and even Adrian Pang himself. The dozen actors will be portraying more than 100 characters between them, set to dynamic musical numbers and a riveting storyline.
The last time we saw pirates in Singapore, it was with Chow Yun Fat welcoming Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow to a disastrously orientalized idea of the East. Rickshaws and coolies might just work for this period production, but fingers crossed that the Singaporean creative team will know better than to sail down that road.
Peter and the Starcatcher runs from Sep 28-Oct 20 at the Drama Centre Theatre, National Library Building. Tickets and more information here.
