We had never heard of ‘The Mischief Theatre Company’, or the film ‘Peter Pan goes wrong’. I doubt if I would have picked it up if I had seen it in a charity shop, but we were given it for Christmas by one of my adult sons. He said he had very much liked it, and thought we would too.
(Amazon UK link)
So last night we decided to watch it, with little idea what to expect. It wasn’t until after we’d seen the ‘making of’ extra, and read about it online that I understood that this started as a stage play which was very popular, including a West End season. This film is a TV adaptation, involving David Suchet as the narrator and the play performed in front of a live audience.
The idea is that an amateur dramatic company is going to perform ‘Peter Pan’; we meet them discussing the potential problems, including two cast members who are romantically involved, and one who is extremely nervous, and one who can’t remember his lines… it doesn’t sound very promising.
Then David Suchet starts narrating, reading the opening of JM Barrie’s classic story, and sprinkling - a little dubiously - some glitter. Things start going awry almost immediately as the scene shifts to the Darling family’s nursery. The three young children - played by adults - are out of the spotlight and have to shuffle forward, looking awkward. The tallest of all announces that he is four. The girl playing Wendy tries to get them all in bed, and the person playing the dog Nana gets stuck in a rather large flap in the door.
It doesn’t sound very amusing when written out, and it could have been terrible. But the timing is so good that it works - and we found ourselves laughing aloud more than once, as the scene becomes more and more chaotic. Mr and Mrs Darling are wonderfully exaggerated; the man playing Mr Darling could have been a younger John Cleese, and his wife switches costume rather rapidly to become the housekeeper. That works extremely well and I thought their scene excellent.
When Peter Pan arrives the wires enabling him to fly go wrong and he turns somersaults and crashes into the wall before finally landing - indeed, pretty much everything goes wrong, cleverly choreographed and well executed. I found some of it rather too weird; I’m not a fan of slapstick, and don’t find it funny when people get hurt, but this first part of the play is mostly very amusing.
Then the scene switches to Neverland, after some clumsy attempts at flying, and cast members are duplicated again as pirates, with battles ensuing. I didn’t like this section so much, although the pirate chief (the same actor as Mr Darling) is exaggeratedly excellent. But too many people become hurt, some of them quite badly, and I began to find the fast action and slapstick rather less amusing.
Still, the ending works well with some surprising scenes as the pirate ship breaks loose and can’t be stopped, even if the eventual chaos in the nursery is so appalling as to be disturbing rather than funny.
The rating is PG, which makes sense given the content and the general level of humour, although there are one or two scenes that some parents might baulk at, including one where three characters are seen in their underwear, and another where two others are seen kissing passionately. There are a few references to cast members sleeping together, too, although they would no doubt go over the heads of the very young.
Recommended if you want a light evening’s entertainment and don’t mind a bit of silliness.
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