Peter Pan, left, played by Jake Runeckles, fights with Captain Hook, right, played by Laura Condlln, in Wendy and Peter Pan at the Stratford Festival.The design team has put an aluminum jaw-snapping reptilian frame around what looks like a recumbent bike, which actor Marcus Nance pedals around while, the latest in a long string of adaptations of J.
Hickson accentuates Edwardian gender stereotypes in order to subvert them, but I suspect some young’uns will end up beingDid you know that ladies should have jobs if they want them, and even the vote? Or that a wife is more than a servant to iron your handkerchiefs? I thought Hickson’s exploration of how kids try to grapple with the reality of death through playa fuchsia streak, is truly boyish in the way he gets anxious and starts to fidget and fight whenever any emotional subject is broached; his gangly and not particularly charming portrayal of the character takes some getting used to but is fresh.
Played, as he is, by a female actor, Hook also seems to be offering genuine advice to Wendy when he says, “Why is it that Peter Pan never has to grow up – but you have to be Mother right from the get-go?”