Peter Pan’s untold story is about to fly into Brisbane
Peter Pan is an enchanting and much-loved children’s tale, but what about the backstory to Neverland? A new stage production fills us in with what lies beneath.
In 2011 two young Brisbane theatre-makers were exploring the Big Apple, entranced by the little play that could.
The creatives were David Morton and Nicholas Paine – founders of Dead Puppet Society – and the show was Peter and the Starcatcher, a lo-fi, big-hearted play that serves as a sequel to Peter Pan and scooped the Tony Awards ahead of more fancied rivals.
“We went along and saw it, not really knowing what we were getting ourselves in for,” Morton recalls. “We walked out of the theatre going, ‘Oh, my God, how amazing that here we are in the glitzy commercial theatre capital of the world and there is a show that is just 12 people standing on stage with a bunch of planks and rope’. We just fell in love with it, utterly.”
Dead Puppet Society was a newly launched venture at that point, and Peter and the Starcatcher was hot property owned by the biggest player in the business – Disney Theatrical Group. Morton dared to dream that one day the show would be theirs to adapt and direct for an Australian tour.
Slowly but surely Morton and Paine made good on their wish, on the back of a string of inventive and critically acclaimed productions in Australia and the UK.
“It started off at a very arm’s length distance. Everything was emailed back and forward with Disney. We would send drawings or concepts through and then a few months later we’d get responses,” Morton explains. “But as they realised that we were serious, and started to like what we were presenting to them, it became far more personal.”
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Eventually, Morton and Paine were able to pitch to Disney in person at its Times Square office on 42nd Street, New York.
Present in those meetings was Rick Elice, the Peter and the Starcatcher playwright. He was on board with their big ideas and supported the pair as they proposed updates to dialogue and character backstories. Unusually, musical director James Dobinson was granted permission to build upon Wayne Barker’s original score and create an entirely new song that helps to close the show.
“To be honest, everyone from that whole side of the enterprise has been nothing but generous, with criticism always offered to help grow. It’s felt unbelievably co-beneficial,” Morton says.
The Australian premiere production of Peter and the Starcatcher opened its national tour in Canberra in October and tumbles into QPAC in March. The family-friendly show features Dead Puppet Society’s trademark creations on their grandest scale yet.
“It looks big and swish but, honestly, we did it on the scent of an oily rag, which makes me so proud that it can stand up alongside these mega-million-dollar productions and still look as good,” Morton says.
The play’s collection of colourful characters encouraged Morton to cast a wide net.
“The show sits at the extremities – it’s deeply, deeply emotional and powerful, but then it’s also freaking hilarious at times. And the cast that we’ve got are just masters at playing with the crowd. It’s a total treat to watch,” he explains.
The ensemble includes well-known Brisbane performer Hugh Parker, cabaret legend Paul Capsis, stage and TV veteran Alison Whyte and prominent comedians Colin Lane and Pete Helliar. Peter Pan is played by Otis Dhanji, who got his start in Aquaman and recently co-starred in the Aussie horror flick Talk to Me.
“It’s a play that’s a homage to live performance,” Morton says. “It’s part-drama, it’s part-pantomime, it’s part-musical, it’s part-vaudeville, it’s part-stand-up routine.
“We were like – if we’re going to do this play justice, then we’ve got to make sure that we’ve got the actors with chops who are going to carry those highly emotional scenes, but then we’ve also got the comedians with chops who are going to help us to fall in love with our villains in the right way.”
Dozens of performances later, Morton still enjoys watching the performers inhabit their roles and have fun with them. (The music is played live, allowing the cast to exist in the moment and improvise when inspiration strikes).
And then there’s the appeal of characters who audiences feel they already know, but whose origin stories are a surprise.
“I love the way that the Starcatcher entry into the Peter Pan universe is all so aspirational,” Morton says. “The whole show is about becoming – and the choices that these characters make and the successes, but also the pitfalls, and how those struggles turn them into these characters that we know go on another entire journey.”
Peter and the Starcatcher plays QPAC’s Playhouse, March 14 to April 6.