Review: ‘Wendy’s Peter Pan’ Charms as a Lovely Retelling at the Theatricum Botanicum

The following review is based on the Sunday, September 1st performance of Wendy’s Peter Pan when Shoshanna Green, Sky Wahl, Cristian Sanchez, and Georgiana Swanson played the roles of Nana, Smee, Cookson, and Slightly, respectively. 

One of the five shows in repertory at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum this season is Wendy’s Peter Pan — a lively, sweet, family-friendly, and familiar show highlighting not just J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan (and the protagonist’s greatest exploits), but Wendy, particularly her perspective as an adult woman and mother looking back on her Neverland adventures.

Despite minor issues with laggy pacing between some narrative beats and the inaudibility of some dialogue — certainly not helped by the chorus of blaring crickets enveloping the amphitheater in Topanga Canyon — director Ellen Geer has evocatively retold a 120-year-old story with a highly age-varied cast, appealing to an equally diverse audience.

Spectacularly, three generations of the Geer family are involved — not just Ellen, but her daughter Willow who portrays older Wendy, and talented grandchildren Quinnlyn Scheppner (young Wendy), Julius Geer-Polin (Michael), and Luther Geer-Polin (a Lost Boy).

The play begins in a nursery when Willow’s Wendy, with her grand diary in hand, sets the stage and the scenes to follow as her three children (two boys and a girl), by way of an extended flashback, become her brothers Michael and John (the adept Jaz Bennassar) as well as a younger version of herself.

Soon, we also meet Wendy’s parents: the cynical “master of the house” George (Lynn Robert Berg) and antithetically authentic Mary Darling (Robyn Cohen), their faithful dog Nana (Shoshanna Green), and ornery maid Liza (Ianthe Marini) before the perpetually young Peter Pan (Gabbi Beauvais) enters from the rear of the stage in recognizable green spandex and leaves in hair. Peter’s tussle with his shadow, a mutual tendering of a thimble/kiss with young Wendy, and the intriguing appearance of the jealous Tinkerbell as a ball of yellow light (effervescently voiced by Willow) quickly reveal that Pan enthusiasts will get what they bargained for from Ellen Geer’s interpretation, with the added twist of older Wendy’s animated narration.

In her role, Willow Geer demonstrates a dynamic diction and, via her commitment to each spoken word, the audience can infer what mature Wendy may be retroactively feeling about her erstwhile encounter with this fantasy, sensed through the inflections in her voice. On the other hand, besides this one interesting wrinkle, which sometimes feels underutilized, not much else novel is applied to the chronicle — and perhaps it’s ultimately best this way so that the heart of Barrie’s design is preserved.

As much as Willow remains steady and consistent, Berg’s Captain Hook provides the climactic points of the production by virtue of a hammy nature that comes through in charismatic spades due to the actor fully immersing himself in the deliciously antagonistic role. (Sky Wahl, too, deserves praise for stepping into the self-conscious and obsequious Smee like she’s owned it from the outset.) The stakes, amplified by Hook’s motivations, first come into the picture not long after young Wendy and her brothers fly off with Peter to Neverland and meet the irreproachably innocent Lost Boys (although Hook would disagree) and audacious Tiger Lily (Marini).

The auburn-haired Scheppner looks and sounds like the very Wendy who flies off the pages of Barrie’s Peter Pan play; she even captures Wendy’s soft-spoken nature which unfortunately doesn’t always lend itself to hearing every word, but it is an endearing turn either way.

Beauvais’s Peter is personable, brimming with ceaseless energy, and appropriately naïve. Needless to say, it’s an extraordinarily physical part that Beauvais takes on all too easily as she “soars” (aerial and movement choreographer is Lexi Pearl) and contorts herself around a rope swing fastened to one of the tree branches comprising the naturalistic set.

The Lost Boys, of whom Elliott Grey Wilson’s full-of-personality Tootles stands out, are as rambunctious, silly, and disarming as one might hope, as an array of elementary school-aged children having the time of their lives by running, flailing, and even singing the “Star-Spangled Banner” as a rebellious rebuttal to Hook and the Pirates’ self-affirming “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me).”

In addition, Marini displays her versatility as a performer, going from the frazzled Liza to the spiritually empowered Tiger Lily; the same can be said for Cohen who gives a heartily genuine portrayal as Mrs. Darling and yet is fully believable as a magical, bubble surrounded mermaid.

Of course, the creative team is right there with the performers to ensure an utter suspension of disbelief. For instance, Zachary Moore’s lushly green lighting brilliantly denotes the splendor of Neverland; the costumes of Tracy Wahl are as bona fide as any production of Pan can be; Megan Geer-Alsop’s ticking Crocodile appears satisfyingly formidable; and fight choreographer Cavin (CR) Mohrhardt has crafted quite the epic sword duel betwixt Beauvais’s Pan and Berg’s Hook to cap off the two-hour ride to Neverland and back.

Overall, Ellen Geer’s presentation of Wendy’s Peter Pan, in perhaps the best theatrical setting that Southern California has to offer, dutifully accomplishes what it sets out to do. For adults, it conjures comforting and imaginative images of their childhood as now told from the vantage point of a full-grown Wendy, and for children, it introduces Barrie’s ageless yarn, opening the mind to endless possibilities, though also reminding that even eternal youth (and the frivolous priorities that accompany it) can get old after a while.

Cover Image Caption: From left to right are Jaz Bennassar, Willow Geer, Quinnlyn Scheppner, and Julius Geer-Polin in Wendy’s Peter Pan at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga, CA. Photo credit: Ian Flanders

Wendy’s Peter Pan runs through Friday, October 4th at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum. For more information, and to purchase tickets, visit theatricum.com.