Theater Review: "Peter and the Starcatcher" at University of Mary Washington
This evening, our theater critic Dennis Wemm reviews the current production at UMW. You can catch the final two performances tonight and tomorrow at 7:30 p.m.
By Dennis Wemm
THEATER CRITIC
This is a brilliant adaptation of a set of modern myths. Do you know the general outline of the Peter Pan story? Peter, Wendy, John, Michael, the Darlings, Nana? Chances are you do. The imagery, sometimes from Mary Martin and Cyril Richard, maybe from Disney, maybe from Johnny Depp or other presentations of Finding Neverland.
Well, this is not that story. It begins about 20 years before, and is a swashbuckling adventure tale with tongue planted firmly in cheek.
This play is “story theatre.” (For those who are interested, I include a quick glossary of the terms like these at the end. You are warned.) At the opening, narration brings you into the story in a way that both gives and withholds information, letting you discover the story as the performers present it. Each incident is narrated by the character who instigates the action, using the words from a base source, in this case the bestselling YA novels by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson.
Okay, then, if you go, what will you see? A stage set which is evocative of many things: aboard a ship, on a dock, on a not so deserted island. A chest full of magical star stuff (no, literally, that’s its official name). Surprises, farce (stuffed with humor), music in unexpected places, a continual running narrative that underlies each scene. Physical performances that make you wish you were that limber, shifting “locations,” and exciting stage pictures. A stage that turns into a lot of different locations and basically becomes an actor’s jungle gym. Lots and lots of pop culture references. A lot of words, a lot of wordplay, characters with funny names, cultural stereotypes being questioned. Characters are called The Boy, Fighting Prawn, Lord and Molly Aster (the Starcatchers), and (God help us all) Mrs. Bumbrake who alliterates her Bs almost constantly.
What you won’t see is people standing still or sitting for very long. From the opening moments you are engaged with a group of performers who really need your attention. Don’t count on a lot of time to stop and reflect because you will lose track really quickly. You won’t see anyone on invisible wires or even visible ones. Watch, listen, experience. Let the moment pass and flow over you. The logic of the piece is mythic and fairy tale, leave your need for psychological motivation at the door, please.
Actors will change roles at a moment’s notice, and the show is built on visual moments, quick gags, lighting changes. As Molly explores the ship she ends up on, she clambers over a shifting uneven floor, staggering for balance. She opens three “trap doors.” Looking down each one in turn, the entire rest of the cast becomes an arguing mess hall full of pirates, then they become devout Anglicans singing a hymn familiar to churchgoers and Titanic fans about shipwrecks, and finally a room in the bilge where they keep the orphans. Why are they there? Well, because they’re orphans.
Weaknesses? In any farce there are logical improbabilities. These eventually catch up to the production. A classic comic construction is pitch-pause-punch. Pitch sets up the situation. Pause gives the audience a moment to ask “are they really going to go there?” or “how will they get out of this one?” Punch spins the ideas out and leaves the logic defeated on the floor. The audience, hopefully laughing, gets ready for the next pitch.
Like juggling plates, you start to wonder if the next move is going to work. You don’t want to worry about the plates, and if there are enough joke-shards left on the floor someone’s going to start worrying for the performers.
Fortunately, the creative staff—playwrights, director, designers—have created a safe environment that makes the action fun to watch. You can almost guess what happens next in the plot if you’re familiar with coming-of-age hero tales. That’s okay as long as the plates are in the air and are rescued with the utmost cleverness. Everything depends on the actors and a seamless integration of timing and technique. “Farce” is derived from the French “to stuff,” and you stuff moment after moment so that if something doesn’t work, well, there’s always the next one.
The cast keeps those plates spinning, and for the most part, the catches are there. Each performer has a few shining moments based on a very basic character trait: Boy is confused about his identity, but knows he wants to fly. Prentiss is ambitious and a bit pedantic. Ted is always hungry. Lord Aster, a secret agent for the Queen (God save her), is an ideal father, and Molly is ambitious (and admittedly a little bit over-competitive).
The Forces of Evil are mostly pirates, led by the Black Stache (yup) who yearns to be REALLY evil and only needs a hero to destroy in order to fulfill his destiny, and of course, it’s not a Peter Pan show without Smee. Really evil villains need to banter with a lackey, and Regan Bailey’s Smee is the lackeyest.
There are other characters who serve as speed bumps on the road to self-fulfillment. Roles are switched with a moment’s notice, by means of costume, prop, or hair change. The ensemble works pretty seamlessly; there’s very little broken china on the floor by the end of the evening and what there is has been swept up well.
Ben Kline, who plays Boy and Peter Pan, doesn’t have a lot to work with for the first third of the performance because he has few lines and mostly sits and watches the rest of the action. He grows into his own as the play goes on and the ultimate moment of achievement is well handled by all.
Nikki Rizzo as Molly has a huge role, since most of the action is told from her point of view. She’s wise beyond her years but has a sweet vulnerability that lets her jump from bossiness to uncertainty to fear to brazen bravery at a moment’s notice.
Rob Willcox as Black Stache doesn’t show up in that main character until halfway through the first act, but you know from the start that this is a force to be reckoned with. The action scenes, physical comedy, dexterity in handling stage violence, and the fact that the character is so good at being bad make the Stache an audience favorite.
Lily Simanski and Caroline Rous are fun as two members of the Mollusk clan, natives to the island that is not yet Neverland, are in it for themselves and their tribe.
Blaise Wingold and Cameron Zakreski are effective as Prentiss and Ted, who are too obsessed with their own needs (food and ambition) to be the Chosen Ones, but who are also too likeable to be bad.
Cora Denny as Alf and especially Lucas Bickford as Betty Bumbrake are the oddest of couples, but their budding romance provides some needed emotional spine to a play that focuses on the Hero Quest and young characters trying to find themselves.
The tech for the show exists to provide a backdrop and then underline and focus on pivotal plot moments. Music is pre-recorded and provides a nice soundscape to some of the scenes. The mermaids are a fun addition to the action and help us understand why the star stuff is so important. And the scene in the mermaid grotto between the Boy and the Teacher shows how transcendence can be achieved with lighting and a really big piece of cloth.
I do admit that I found myself a bit put off by the uneven energy in the show’s first sections. The characters were not established immediately, and after the well-staged prologue, the exposition bomb at the show’s opening was very rushed and more shouted than projected. This settled down nicely once the script allowed the performers to fully become their characters.
All in all, “Peter and the Starcatcher” was a very satisfying experience.
Dennis Wemm is a retired professor of theatre and communication, having taught and led both departments at Glenville State College for 34 years. In his off time he was president and sometimes Executive Director of the West Virginia Theatre Conference, secretary and president of the Southeastern Theatre Conference, and generally enjoyed a life in theatre.
Want to Go?
Catch the final two performances of “Peter and the Starcatcher” at 7:30 p.m. Friday or Saturday nights in duPont Hall, 1301 College Avenue, Fredericksburg.
Tickets ($23-$33) available here.
Glossary for those who want it:
Devised theatre: A type of performance piece that is built on another literary work, current events, or other performance piece. It is workshop based and uses input from a collective of performers in creating the story which then is collected into a script. Actors and characters may be exchanged and staging is orchestrated by a director after with the willing collaboration of the collective.
Examples: SITI company, using the Viewpoints system (Bogart and Suzuki); The 39 Steps; Washington, D.C.’s Synetic Theatre Company; to some extent Hamilton and the work of Bertolt Brecht.
Story theatre: A type of devised theatre that uses improvisation and (sometimes) music and song to retell a story, frequently a well-known story whose plot and characters become a loose framework. Actors provide their own narration, slipping through the fourth wall to interact and comment on the story and alternately “live” in the scene as well. Typically the acting company creates the moments which at some point may become a script for future performances. The story winds through its twists and turns until the end. Actors perform one role, then switch to another role, then become props, scenery, and special effects.
Examples: “Story Theatre” by Paul Sills, “Godspell” by John Michael Tebelak and Stephen Schwartz, inspired by Viola Spolin.
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Very enjoyable, high energy performance! The students did an excellent job and the stage is amazing. Go!