Review | Hong Kong Ballet’s Peter Pan: so much fun it lifts your spirits – Septime Webre’s humour shines through
- You wouldn’t know this production is 18 years old – it bursts with freshness and energy, helped by an imaginative set, fabulous costumes and astute casting
- Shen Jie makes an ideal Peter Pan, and Webre, turning the story on its head, makes the villains of the piece figures of fun who steal every scene they’re in
The last time I saw the boy who never grew up glide above and across the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Grand Theatre stage was when Britain’s Northern Ballet Theatre brought David Nixon’s Peter Pan to open the International Arts Carnival in Hong Kong in 2010. It was fun – but not half as fun as Septime Webre’s adaptation of the J.M. Barrie classic.
What makes the work really tick is Webre’s sense of humour, both in storytelling and choreography – in his hands this well-known and popular children’s story is, quite unexpectedly, turned on its head.
The show opens with a dancing shadow projected onto a large screen, which lifts to reveal the Darling nursery, where Wendy, John and Michael are wrestling with their hyperactive pet dog, Nana, before bedtime. When the children are finally tucked under the duvet, a gust of wind blows the bedroom window open and in comes Tinkerbell, in the form of a blinking light projection, followed by a flying Peter Pan looking for his mischievous shadow.
We all know what happens next: Wendy helps Peter stitch his shadow back on his feet and everyone takes off to Neverland, home to the Lost Boys and other mythical creatures.
There, they meet the villains: Captain Hook, Peter’s nemesis, and the Crocodile (which bit the pirate’s hand off). But here’s the thing: neither can be described as menacing. In fact, Webre’s Captain Hook is more like Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean, while the Crocodile, whose entrance is preceded by a tick-tock sound (because of the clock he swallowed), is bright green and has some snazzy moves.