Within a fortnight of Wendy’s birth, JM Barrie has Mr and Mrs Darling calculating household expenses to see if they can afford to keep her. It’s played for comedy in the novel – much like the couple making a Newfoundland dog their nurse because a nanny is too pricey. But James Baldwin’s new, loose adaptation for over-sixes puts the modern-day cost of living front and centre. A bill is stuffed through the door of a shabby kitchen set (Anisha Fields’s design), where a daunting to-do list is pinned on the family fridge.
Wendy (Liana Cottrill) and Jon Michael (JoAnne Haines) are being raised by their mum (Rozelle Gemma). Wendy is bullied at school and overloaded at home so, freaky as it is to discover Peter Pan (Joseph Tweedale) in the fridge, she agrees to accompany him and Tink (Alice Lamb) to the Neverland.
