This play’s title carries the revisionism in Ella Hickson’s feminist version of JM Barrie’s tale about forever childhood. Yet, ironically, it seems as if this Royal Shakespeare Company production from 2013 has not aged well itself.
Wendy (Hannah Saxby) is the protagonist here, grieving for a young dead brother who she seeks to find and bring back from Neverland. Despite the reframing, she remains strangely tame, duly playing at being “mother” to the Lost Boys, full of uncertainty, self-deprecation and guilt for most of the play. So, when she suddenly decides to form a sisterhood with Tink (Charlotte Mills) and Tiger Lily (Ami Tredrea) – “let’s go kick some pirate bum” – it comes from nowhere, and feels thoroughly latched on. Mrs Darling (Lolita Chakrabarti) is also given more agency, wresting freedom in her marriage and talking of the Suffragettes, but it is rather removed from the main drama.
