REVIEW - PETER PAN @ TOWNGATE

I was very much looking forward to watching Peter Pan at the Towngate Theatre in Basildon. I LOVE panto so was delighted to be invited. It’s a fab show and the audience were having a really tremendous time. But there was a part of me that felt a little let down.

So I’ve written two parts of this review; one from the side of an audience member, and the other that has been a professional in theatre for over 11 years.

The problem we often have in the industry, with productions like this, is that they lack a designer. A person who can see the production as a whole and oversee the costume and set decisions so that aesthetically it all ties together. Pantos reuse costumes from previous productions. And the circular nature of this repurposing is one to be admired and I think the rest of the industry can learn from. I love that costumes and set pieces are swapped and changed and mixed up to form brand new shows. But it needs more than someone picking a set of lost boy costumes and shipping them to Basildon. A designer holds the whole show together; making sure the set and costumes work together and fit with the script and what the director wants to achieve. I’m not knocking the wardrobe supervisors that end up making these decisions, but simply saying it needs another creative to oversee it. There’s a reason designers exist. And I could tell from the first scene that when I would check the programme in the interval I wouldn’t find a designer credited. And I was right.

I have been a freelancer in costume for a long time and there was a lot to be frustrated about. For a professional production, I felt the costumes weren’t up to scratch. At times it felt like I was watching a school production not one at a 500+ seat theatre. But from the programme I noticed one supervisor and one wardrobe mistress. This is not enough for a show of this scale. Perhaps there are additional dressers but they have been uncredited. With one person backstage, there’s no wonder there were unpressed collars, visible poppers and overstretched elastics. This isn’t me having a go at the hard working backstage staff, this is saying the producers are not providing enough staff to work on the production. These are easy fixes when you have the appropriate number of people in your department.

I appreciated the re-imagining of the Native American scene, into a more hippy-ish group of people. But using the Native American style skirts and adding a glittery top didn’t really work for me. It felt like a half-baked idea. There were some nice details on the denim jackets – my gut saying the wardrobe team tried to bring the vision to life. But it wasn’t enough in my opinion. And there were some questionable costumes on the youngest members of the ensemble that made me feel a tad uncomfortable.  

But to the more positive side of this review! There were some really nice dame dresses – and Captain Hook’s outfits were spot on. I really loved them – especially the see through sleeves. And it was a great show! I think act two was way better than act one, although the end of act one was incredible. I love big ensemble pieces – and this one was ambitious, but they really pulled it off.

Some super performances and the vocals were incredible, especially Hannah Taylor as Wendy. Stand out performances from Sophie Ladds (Hook) and Antonia Luisa-Clarke (Tinkerbelle). Although maybe a little too convincing as at one point I wondered whether Tinkerbelle was the baddie! The role of Peter Pan was played by Harvey Zaffino – who had tonnes of energy but often I had trouble understanding what he was saying.

I LOVE that there was a live band – it makes such a difference. Although maybe slightly too many sound effects on punchlines. Some absolutely brilliant comic moments – I love when there’s time taken over one punch line, rather than a string of jokes. And there were a few of these which made me howl. I’m not sure I felt a natural connection between Mrs Smee (Ian Hallard) and Wibbles (Michael Loftus) but some great moments from them nonetheless. I wonder if there was a bit of comedy hierarchy lost in this production. Sophie Ladds as Hook commanded the stage and delivered her comic lines perfectly. But did that outweigh the others as being the main comic figures? And having Peter Pan as the character that became friends with the audience, made the Wibbles character slightly redundant? Often there’s one character who ‘controls’ the show; usually the celeb or the dame.  But with this it felt a lot less hierarchal and reading the bios, so many of the cast have been performing in this show for years. It made it feel a lot more of a family ensemble piece than a one-person show, which I enjoyed a lot. 

It’s a great panto and would definitely recommend going to watch. The flying is fab, the performances are fab and the audience participation is fab. Even if you’re a costume snob like me you’ll have a great time.

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