1st Night Photos: Pan Flies Home to Kensington

JM Barrie's Peter Pan enjoyed a homecoming last night (10 June 2009, previews from 26 May), with the opening of a new version mounted in a specially constructed tent in Kensington Gardens, where, over a century ago, Barrie first told the story to the Llewelyn Davies children.

The play – which premiered at the Duke of York's Theatre on 27 December 1904 – soon led to Barrie's publication of an illustrated book, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, in 1906. In it, he wrote: “Standing on the ledge he could see trees far away, which were doubtless the Kensington Gardens, and the moment he saw them he entirely forgot that he was now a little boy in a nightgown, and away he flew, right over the houses into the Gardens.”

The tent home of the new production, directed by former Almeida associate director and site-specific specialist Ben Harrison, is situated in the meadow between West Carriage Drive and the Long Water, located in the north-east of Kensington Gardens near Lancaster Gate Tube station.

Designer William Dudley has created a 3D multimedia environment, with CGI projections enabling the cast, which includes Ciaran Kellgren and Abby Ford as Peter and Wendy,  to fly over London on their journey to Neverland.

TO SCROLL THROUGH ALL OF PETER PAN's 1ST NIGHT PHOTOS,
JUST CLICK ON THE "NEXT >" LINKS BELOW THE FOLLOWING FRAME.
PHOTOS BY DAN WOOLLER FOR WHATSONSTAGE.COM.

For 1st Night Photos, our Whatsonstage.com photographer Dan Wooller was at the Neverland Pavilion, where the company were joined by guests (some with their Godchildren in tow!) including Clive Rowe, Christopher Biggins, Elaine Paige, Nickolas Grace, Alice Beer and David Soul.

Peter Pan is adapted by Tanya Ronder, whose previous credits include adaptations of Vernon God Little at the Young Vic and Lorca’s Blood Wedding at the Almeida and produced by Charlie Burnell and Mat Churchill, by arrangement with the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity and Samuel French Limited. It continues to 30 August 2009.

- by Theo Bosanquet

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	Peter Pan - 16th Dec 2009 reviews
	Review Round-up: Did Peter Fly or Get Panned? - 12th Jun 2009 roundup