Peter Pan (NHB Modern Plays) E-Book

J.m Barrie

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Seitenzahl: 109

Beschreibung

Chasing his runaway shadow, a mischievous young boy who will never grow up crash lands through an open window and meets a headstrong young girl who is desperate to be an adult. With a sprinkle of fairy dust, they take flight on a whirlwind voyage over pirate ships, through mermaid lagoons and into the heart of Neverland. Adapted from J.M. Barrie's perennial favourite, this enchanting new version by Evan Placey, with songs by Vikki Stone, premiered in 2023 at Rose Theatre, Kingston upon Thames, directed by Lucy Morrell. It was commissioned by the Rose to be performed by twenty members of the Rose Youth Theatre alongside four professional adult actors. It offers rich opportunities for other theatre companies who want to keep their audiences hooked with a magical, musical classic. 'Delightful and enchanting… cleaves close to JM Barrie's beloved original… serves up fun, games and entertainment in bucketfuls' - Time Out 'Ample charm and an excellent hero… retains the period sweetness of JM Barrie's original' - Telegraph 'Evan Placey is loyal to Barrie's original sentiments. The script successfully balances the important messages of the story with the playfulness of the piece… there is so much to enjoy… Music and lyrics by Vikki Stone add to the energy of the evening… Real festive family fun' - Reviews Hub 'Sweet and sentimental… focuses on themes of family, belonging and taking responsibility for the people you love. Adapter Evan Placey has lightly tweaked the familiar text, bulking up Wendy's story by adding a believable conflict between the headstrong teenager and her loving but overwhelmed mother… Vikki Stone's catchy, contemporary songs help to drive home the show's sweet message about embracing a found family and following your dreams' - The Stage

Leseprobe

J. M. Barrie

PETER PAN

in a new version by

Evan Placey

with songs by

Vikki Stone

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Original Production

Acknowledgements

Dedication

Characters

Peter Pan

About the Authors

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

This adaptation of Peter Pan was commissioned and first performed at Rose Theatre, Kingston upon Thames, on 7 December 2023 (previews from 1 December), with the following cast:

MRS DARLING/ CAPTAIN HOOK

Michelle Bishop

GRAN

Hilary Maclean

PETER PAN

Kaine Ruddach

MR DARLING/SMEE

Dominic Rye

All other roles performed by members of the Rose Youth Theatre

Director

Lucy Morrell

Set & Costume Designer

Oli Townsend

Lighting Designer

Emma Chapman

Sound Designer

Aidan Jones

Movement Director

Bradley Charles

Associate Director & Voice Coach

Josh Mathieson

Casting Director

Ellie Collyer-Bristow CDG

Musical Director

Jody Ellen Robinson

Fight & Intimacy Director

Claire Llewellyn

Puppetry Director

Judith Hope

Acknowledgements

Thank you to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for letting me fulfil a lifelong dream to write a new version of Peter Pan. Vikki Stone, for the music that I keep singing in my sleep; Lucy Morell and Josh Mathieson for your magic; Oli Townsend for the diva croc and making what was in my head 3D; Chris Haydon and David Sloan for your unwavering faith; Michelle, Hilary, Kaine, Dom, Amelie and Isla for helping me whip the text in to shape. To all the young people in the cast, you make my heart soar every performance, and I hope you never grow up.

Thank you also to the wonderful crew on Peter Pan, too many to name here. And to all the staff at Rose Theatre for making our Neverland so welcoming.

As ever thank you to my agent Tanya Tillett, and to Matt Applewhite and Sarah Liisa Wilkinson at NHB.

Daniel and Kaydon, for being my tinkerbells – and always being my light.

E.P.

For Kaydon. Take flight.

And know we’ll always be here waiting when you return home.

Characters

GRAN

RALPH

MRS DARLING

MR DARLING

WENDY

JOHN

MICHAEL

NANA, a dog (puppet)

PETER PAN

TINKER BELL, a tiny tiny fairy

PETER’S SHADOW

LIZA

THE LOST BOYS – ANY GENDER

NIBS

TOOTLES

SLIGHTLY

CURLY

TWIN 1

TWIN 2

THE PIRATES – ANY GENDER

CAPTAIN HOOK, doubles with Mrs Darling

SMEE, doubles with Mr Darling

NOODLER, a dog (puppet)

STARKEY

JUKES

CECCO

COOKSON

And other PIRATES

CROCODILE

TIGER LILY

MERMAIDS

A Note on Punctuation

– is a cut-off, sometimes of one’s own thought with a different thought (not a pause or beat).

… is a loss or search for words.

a lack of punctuation at the end of a line means the next line comes right in.

[ ] words that are not spoken, but there to clarify a line’s meaning.

Sometimes sentences are broken across multiple lines of text; this is to help navigate a chunk of text and give it a rhythm, but it’s not about stopping or pausing between lines especially when there’s no punctuation at the end of a line – the rule above still applies, the next line comes right in; the spacing is to help push the pace and drive the shift in intentions amongst a hefty bit of dialogue.

This ebook was created before the end of rehearsals and so may differ slightly from the play as performed.

ACT ONE

Scene One

A mostly bare stage except for a bed, and a rocking chair next to it.

GRAN. Come on, let’s be having you, Ralph.

RALPH. Oh please, Gran, just a few more minutes.

GRAN. Sooner to bed the sooner it’ll be Christmas morning.

RALPH. Mum lets me stay up all night.

GRAN. That, young man, is a lie.

RALPH. A white lie.

GRAN. A big fat red lie.

RALPH. Just a wee bit longer.

GRAN shoos him to bed.

I can’t wait till I’m older, then I can stay up all night long.

GRAN. When you’re older, you can’t wait to go to bed early.

RALPH. Well, then I shall never grow up.

GRAN. All children grow up, except one.

RALPH. Who?

And it takes her aback. GRAN’s mind is somewhere else. Unexpected memories rushing in.

Gran?

GRAN. What? Yes?

RALPH. Who doesn’t grow up?

GRAN. It’s a long story.

RALPH. Tell me. Please. One last story for Christmas Eve.

GRAN. All right, all right. One last Christmas story.

But she’s distracted… unsure where to start.

RALPH. Gran? (Helping her start.) All children grow up, except one.

GRAN. And that one is… Peter. Peter Pan.

RALPH. Why doesn’t Peter grow up?

GRAN. Where he lives, well, children don’t grow up.

RALPH. Tell me where he lives.

GRAN. Never.

RALPH. Please!

GRAN. No, that’s where he lives. The Land of Never. Neverland. A place of billowing sails and swaying never-trees and splashing flippers and runaway shadows. Peter lives there with the Lost Boys.

And the LOST BOYS appear in tableau or something slow-moving – like an image captured in time. GRAN tells it like it’s a ghost story.

And the brave maverick, Tiger Lily.

And TIGER LILY appears.

And of course, the pirates!

RALPH. Pirates? Were they good pirates?

GRAN. Oh no, they were very bad eggs.

And the PIRATES appear.

They wanted to kill the Lost Boys.

RALPH. Kill them? Why?

GRAN. I think. I think because they were jealous of the fact that the Lost Boys never grew up. See children are always saying they can’t wait to grow up. But adults are always saying they wish they were young again.

RALPH. I’ve never heard an adult say that.

GRAN. They don’t say it in words. But when they yell at you for being noisy, or get frustrated with you – that’s really them saying they wish they were a child again. And so the pirates, they wanted to kill all the Lost Boys.

And the battle begins! The LOST BOYS and TIGER LILY versus the PIRATES. This should probably feel balletic, or some sort of dance-form, or be slow motion or… (Mainly it needs to feel very different than the big actual battle we’ll see later in the play.) And this one should be short lived.

And most of all, Hook wanted to kill Peter Pan.

RALPH. Who is Hook?

GRAN. The captain of the pirates. The most evil of them all.

HOOK and PETER PAN appear in shadow.

PETER PAN. I’m who you want, Captain! Well, come get me!

And HOOK and PETER PAN sword fight in shadow. There’s the clank of clashing swords and skin being grazed.

RALPH (terrified). And did Hook get Peter?

GRAN. Almost. Until. Peter chopped off the Captain’s hand!

And PETER, still in shadow, chops off HOOK’s hand, which comes flying out from behind the shadow. A bloody hand, landing onstage.

RALPH screams!

You’ll wake your sister.

RALPH. What kind of Christmas story is this?

GRAN. See, I told you, better to go to bed.

RALPH (from behind his hands, scared). No, tell me.

GRAN. Well, that’s how the Captain became Hook – a hook where the hand used to be.

RALPH. And what happened to the hand?

GRAN. The bloody hand, yes – (She picks it up.) well, Peter flung it out to sea – (She flings it away.) where a crocodile caught it –

The CROCODILE, in shadow, mouth open wide, catches the hand.

And the crocodile, now with a taste for the Captain… wanted more. He’d had a taste for Captain’s blood…

RALPH (frightened). Gran!

GRAN (back on track). Yes, well, Christmas. It was Christmas.

RALPH. In Neverland?

GRAN. No. In London. In a house.

RALPH. What did the house look like?

GRAN. Well, quite a bit like this one. It was small. But it was warm. It had a nursery.

As she says each item it appears.

With a sturdy, wooden door.

Three children’s beds.

And of course a bay window. With flowing curtains.

And let us have a Christmas tree too.

And the Darling children. Wendy, John, and Michael.

JOHN. Have at thee!

WENDY. Oh all right. You know I’m stronger than you.

And they battle, and she pins her brother down.

GRAN. Finally, the children needed a nurse.

No nurse appears.

But the Darlings couldn’t afford one. Which is why, instead, their nurse was Nana. Who they’d found in Kensington Gardens.

NANA runs on.

MRS DARLING. Nana, you’re meant to be giving Michael a bath.

MICHAEL. I won’t I won’t I won’t.

NANA pulls him offstage.

Oh please, Nana, no. I’ll have a bath tomorrow night.

MRS DARLING. Has anyone seen my hair bow?

GRAN. When the children were young they’d play pirates. The bed a ship, the kids would take off their T-shirts and use them as masts, and mother would join in, using her hair bow as an eyepatch.

MRS DARLING notices WENDY is wearing her bow as an eyepatch.

MRS DARLING. Oh, Wendy, what ever will I do with you? And look how you’ve wrinkled it now.

WENDY. Just wear a different one. You’ve got others.

MRS DARLING. The point is I was going to wear this one.

WENDY (imitating). The point is I was going to wear this one.

MRS DARLING. Don’t be so insolent.

WENDY. Don’t be so condescending.

MRS DARLING. You know when you were a child, you wouldn’t have dared speak to your mother this way.

WENDY. A pity for you then that I’m no longer a child.

MRS DARLING. Well, you’re certainly not an adult. George!

JOHN. What about the star? For the top of the tree?

MRS DARLING. I forgot. I’ll get one tomorrow.

WENDY. Which is what she promised yesterday, and the day before.

MRS DARLING. Oh please leave off it, Wendy.

WENDY. Well, it’s family tradition. Every year we put up the new star on Christmas Eve, and suddenly this year we’re not.

MRS DARLING. I forgot, I’m sorry. We’ll get one next year.

WENDY. It’s because we haven’t any money left, isn’t it?

MRS DARLING. Don’t be ridiculous.

RALPH. So why didn’t they have the star above the tree?

GRAN. It’s as Wendy said, money was a bit tight this year.

RALPH. So her mum lied to her?

GRAN. I suppose. But she did it to protect her. So she wouldn’t worry.

MRS DARLING. John, would you please go see what your father is up to? We need to leave.

JOHN goes.

WENDY. I know you’re lying to me. Dad’s just lost his job. I heard you two the other night.

MRS DARLING. It’s impolite to eavesdrop.

WENDY. What kind of mother lies to her children?

MRS DARLING. A terrible mother. Is that the answer you’re looking for? I know you think you know everything at the ripe old age of fourteen, but trust me –

WENDY. I’ll understand when I’m older? What a cliché, Mother. Well you know what I understand right now, I understand that when I become a mother one day, I want to never become like you!

MRS DARLING hides her hurt. MICHAEL and JOHN re-enter with MR DARLING.

MRS DARLING. Where is Nana?

MR DARLING. I’ve locked her in the bedroom. I didn’t like how she was watching me struggle with my tie. Nana looks down on me.

MRS DARLING. Oh, George, she’s just a dog.

MRS DARLING exits.

MR DARLING. Precisely. She should admire me. Want to be like me. Right, time for your vitamins. Let’s not have silliness, Michael. Won’t you be a man about it?

He holds out the vitamin drink.

MICHAEL. Won’t, won’t, won’t. It tastes horrible.

MR DARLING. When I was a child, I would say ‘Thank you, parents, for giving me vitamins to keep me well.’

JOHN. It’s hard to imagine you were ever a child.

MR DARLING. Oh I have a splendid idea, I’ll pour it in Nana’s bowl. She’ll think it’s milk.

The KIDS all laugh.

Now don’t smile or she’ll know there’s a trick at play.

MICHAEL. Nana?

MR DARLING. No, your mother.

MRS DARLING re-enters with NANA.

MRS DARLING. Poor Nana, all locked up. Oh here, have some milk, you poor thing.

NANA licks it up. Then dry-retches from the taste. The KIDS and MR DARLING all start laughing.

What’s so funny?

MICHAEL. Daddy put my vitamin drink in Nana’s bowl.

They all laugh, except for MRS DARLING. NANA whines, upset.

MRS DARLING. Oh look how upset she is.

MR DARLING. Oh it was just a joke.

MRS DARLING. Yes everything’s a joke with you. A very cruel joke. And you’re all complicit. Go to your room.

WENDY. We’re in our room.

MRS DARLING. Go to your beds then. (To MR DARLING.) I’ll be the one disciplining them, shall I, while you continue laughing? (Cuddling NANA.) Oh my sweet Nana.

MR DARLING. Cuddle her. Nobody cuddles me!

MRS DARLING. Poor Nana.

MR DARLING. ‘Poor Nana.’ That’s it. I refuse to have her reigning over all of us like the Queen of Sheepdogs. It’s out to the yard with you.

MRS DARLING. Oh, George, no! (To KIDS.) Well, now look what you’ve done. To bed with you all.

JOHN. It’s not our fault, he’s –

MRS DARLING. To bed.

WENDY. Why do you blame –

MRS DARLING. To bed I said!

The outburst frightens the CHILDREN. They do as they’re told.

A beat. MRS DARLING sits, overwhelmed.

MICHAEL. Mummy?

MRS DARLING. I’m having Mummy time.

(Pause.)