From Black Watch to Never Never Land for National Theatre

Published on Monday 26 October 2009 20:56

IT IS one of the world's best-known fairytales, and it made the name of its celebrated Scottish writer.

Now JM Barrie's Peter Pan is to be given a major makeover by the creators of hit shows such as The Bacchae and Black Watch. They are to relocate the story of never-ending childhood from London to Victorian Edinburgh.

Barrie dreamed up characters Peter Pan, Tinkerbell and Wendy as part of the games he and his friends played at a childhood home in Dumfries.

The playwright and author – who launched Peter Pan on stage in London in 1904 – spent several years studying at Edinburgh University and had lodgings at Great King Street in the New Town.

Leading playwright David Greig has been commissioned to create a new version of his famous story for the National Theatre of Scotland (NTS).

He will be reunited with director John Tiffany for the first time since the pair wowed audiences with The Bacchae, the hit show starring Hollywood actor Alan Cumming. Tiffany also won a string of awards for his work on Black Watch, while Greig's play Midsummer was one of the hits of this year's Fringe.

The Peter Pan show is the major NTS production announced for 2010 and it is being staged to mark the 150th anniversary of Barrie's birth in Kirriemuir, Angus.

The NTS has joined forces with London's Barbican Theatre to produce the new version of Peter Pan, which will open in Glasgow in April before touring to London, Inverness, and Edinburgh.

An NTS spokeswoman said: "This Peter Pan re-imagines the Darling family in Victorian Edinburgh, with all its mists, gas-lamps, bridges and mystery. The production will feature sword fights, flying sequences, acrobats, fire-eaters, the usual ticking crocodile and one great big hook."

Other shows to be staged by the NTS next year include a drama inside a 20ft-high "wall of death", which will visit large venues in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh, and a one-off night of live performance, visual art and music that will transform a deserted shop in Govan, Glasgow. Three shows aimed at young people will tour the country, including a play that will star a teenager chosen from the audience every night.

Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman's theatre critic, said: "I know John Tiffany has been desperate to have a go at directing Peter Pan for years and it's going to be very interesting to see what the National Theatre does with it.

"When it's been staged in Scotland in recent years, it's been seen as very much a traditional Christmas show, and I think this production is more likely to see a piece of more serious theatre which asks serious questions of modern-day relationships between adults and children."