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What a Peter Pan-orama
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent27 Feb 2009
PARTS of Kensington Gardens are to be transformed for the first staging of Peter Pan in the park it made famous around the world.
A new £2.75 million production of the show uses 360-degree computer generated video to conjure up the backdrops to the adventures of Peter Pan and Wendy.
Producers of the summer spectacular are hoping to transport their audience alongside the famously mischievous flying boy on a swooping journey past the Albert Hall, Buckingham Palace, Nelson's Column, St Paul's and the Tower of London. The show is being created within a giant tent in Kensington Gardens, where Barrie originally set the story. Designer William Dudley is taking inspiration from landmarks in the park to create the staging.
Neverland will be on an island which appears to lie in the Round Pond at the heart of the gardens between Lancaster Gate and Kensington Palace.
Captain Hook's ship is inspired by the design of the Italian Gardens, and Hook himself will bear a resemblance to the park statue of King William III, who lived in the late 17th century at the time of pirates such as Blackbeard.
The team is hiring 100 machines almost as sophisticated as those used by master animators Pixar to render the images. The show will also use 10 projectors to create the surround vision on screens five times the size of Imax.
Charlie Burnell, co-producer, said the team has been working on the show for three years. One of the biggest problems has been that no play had been staged in Kensington Gardens before, so it took a year to obtain permission from Westminster council. The show is scheduled to open on 26 May for a 17-week run to 30 August. There are also plans to transport it to America next year.
Ben Harrison, director of the show, said: "It's been a long-term dream to stage this play, and what a thrill to stage it in Kensington Gardens - the place where it was born."
Tanya Ronder, who wrote the production, said it will not be a version many people will expect because much of the "candy floss" has been "scraped off".
"There's such tragedy at the centre. But it's also a great adventure and an ode to childhood. The adults should be crying at the end, and children laughing."
The first of the 22-strong cast were chosen this week. Ciaran Kellgren, 23, will play Peter Pan and Abby Ford, 30, will be Wendy.
Kellgren said: "It's amazingly exciting, magical. Everyone knows the story of Peter Pan."
Ford added: "It's going to be hard work, but the character is not something it's going to be difficult to get hold of. It's a story we're brought up with."
About £250,000 of tickets have already been sold.
