While everything is changing in and around Circa Theatre, one thing that hasn’t changed in over 10 years is the end-of-year pantomime directed by Susan Wilson.  

It is a very successful formula that always draws large crowds, young and old, into the theatre, and although this year’s panto has a new set of creators, Pinky Agnew and Lorae Parry, it is just as bright, energetic and full of fun as ever.

There are jokes aplenty, probably more appalling than usual, but nevertheless very funny, as well as great musical numbers performed with great panache and creative choreography. [More]  

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In Pinky Agnew and Lorae Parry’s pantomimed reimagining of J M Barrie’s play, Peter Pan: the boy who wouldn’t grow up, Wellington is Neverland (because it’s so windy planes can never…). Forgive me but I need to give at least one gag away to exemplify the humour that’s liberally threaded throughout the show.

The tropes of Barrie’s 1904 classic and the Circa pantomime genre (launched in 2005 with Roger Hall’s Cinderella) with director Susan Wilson at the helm throughout, are happily revisited and judiciously subverted to the clear delight of all ages.

The first departure from Barrie is the introduction of a Dame. Katie Pie – embodied with customary flair by Gavin Rutherford like a slightly tatty but comfy favourite garment – is a “poor widow woman” who lives in a cold, damp, Aro Valley flat. Her crooked landlord is the piratical Captain Hook, manifested with sociopathic charm by Simon Leary.

Katie works as housekeeper-cum-babysitter for the Darling family in Days Bay and the ferryman that transports her across the harbour in his waka is Winston Tweeters (Jeff Kingsford-Brown in good form). As played by the wonderfully versatile Bronwyn Turei, her warrior princess daughter, Xena Lily, brings the true heroic oomph to the show. Xena’s initial quest, before the story proper kicks in, is to save the Little Blue Penguin so we know she’s a goodie.

The socialite parents of the Darling family, sketched in by Turei and Leary, have only two children. Michael, very much an afterthought baby, stays in the Bay. So it’s only the adolescent fantasist Wendy – epitomised by Camilla Besley as pure and innocent but summoning spunk where it counts – who allows herself to be spirited away from predictability by Peter Pan. She quickly makes it clear, however, she will not be their domestic slave.

As the titular ‘hero’, who claims to have run away from home the day he was born, Cary Stackhouse captures the essence of a boy who’s a legend in his own mind, if not in ‘reality’ (whatever that is). While he and Besley (both Whitireia Performing Arts graduates) revert to American Musical accents for their big numbers, they sing beautifully, in solos and together.

Adding exceptional strength to the song and dance skills of an already highly accomplished cast are Ben Emerson and Manuel Solomon as Dunnie (Peter Redundant) and Hone (Here-a-party) respectively: the only two Lost (seat) Boys (downsized from Barrie’s original six). Solomon also puts in a winning turn as a break-dancing Nana, the dog.

Shelia Horton’s costumes serve the story splendidly. Jennifer Lal’s lighting design ensures the sense of magic and wonder is maintained as the story plays out on John Hodgkins’ multi-levelled, star-scape evoking set, wherein the fun is enhanced by projections of recognisable Wellington spots (graphic design by Rose Miller, Kraftwork).

While previous Circa pantos have generated original songs, this Peter Pan reverts to the tradition of reworking the lyrics of contemporary and old favourite pop songs, arranged by musical director and one-man-band Michael Nicholas Williams, with musical staging by Leigh Evans.

Thus Peter Pan has ‘Gotta Keep Moving’, Pharrell’s ‘Happy’ song gets a good run, those Lost Boys are ‘Hooked on a Feeling’ and Turei’s Xena Lily morphs into Areefa Plankton to command ‘Respect’, accompanied by a chorus line of Mermaids. Eschewing the convention of the Baddie and Dame hooking up, it’s Katie and Smee who share the Herman’s Hermits feeling ‘I’m Into Something Good’. And although the Circa standard, ‘The Pantomime Whirl’, is reprised at one point, the finale is reserved for S Club 7’s ‘Reach For The Stars’.

Some of the salacious humour seems out of place (Katie’s promise to save an audience member’s sausage roll “fellata”, etc) and I’m not the only one to find Hook’s predatory and dangerous lunge up Katie’s skirt to be astonishingly ‘tone deaf’ in the current climate of heightened awareness of abusive behaviour. Hopefully that non-gag (supposedly about his hook getting snagged) will disappear.

Otherwise the verbal and physical humour is delightfully pitched by all. Katie’s penchant for podcast ‘affirmations’ is a gem. And while there is plenty to keep the adults amused, it’s never at the expense of the central story: the nocturnal escape to Neverland; the existential ‘lostness’ in perpetual childhood while always wanting someone to read bedtime stories; Captain Hook’s desire for revenge against Peter Pan for causing the Crocodile to bite off his hand; the ensuing confrontations and the overcoming of danger to achieve a happy ending … The young audience is entranced throughout.

There is audience participation aplenty; on opening night we rise to the occasions with vocal gusto. And when those Lost Boys, hunting with bows and arrows, inadvertently shoot down Tinkerbell (Turei again, when the fairy is not a flitting light), the children readily flock to the stage to play their part in bringing her back to life.

The general post-show consensus is that Peter Pan the pantomime has refreshed the genre and given Circa Theatre’s end-of-year family tradition a whole new lease of life.  

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