Weekend Life: It's 48 hours 'til Monday

Tomorrow marks the 150th birth date of JM Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan and the patron saint of boys who have always looked upon the supposed benefits of growing up with a fair amount of suspicion. The idea for Peter Pan is thought to have stemmed from the death of one of Barrie's older brothers. David Barrie died in an ice-skating accident on the day before his 14th birthday and, in the young mind of James Matthew Barrie, his lost sibling was the boy who never grew up.

That's the sort of compelling back story which would have today's book publicists licking their lips and dialling Oprah's producers but the early 20th century was, perhaps, a less lurid time. However, JM Barrie remains a fascinating man and his life is being celebrated in a series of forthcoming events. The National Theatre of Scotland has produced a new version of Peter Pan and its Glasgow run finishes tonight at the King's but will return to Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Inverness later in the year.

In Kirriemuir, Barrie's birthplace, there is a two- week programme of birthday celebrations which includes this afternoon's tribute to the author by Donald Smith of the Scottish Storytelling Centre and tomorrow's interview of Andrew Birkin, author of JM Barrie and the Lost Boys, by the broadcaster and author Lesley Riddoch.

Peter Pan still inspires artists in all sorts of mediums a century and a half after the birth of his creator. The same could be said of the Royal Scottish Academy which opens its 184th annual exhibition on the Mound in Edinburgh today. The artists chosen for the exhibition have been picked for their "involvement with and critique of society directly through the making process of painting, sculpture, print-making and photography".

It could be argued that all art worthy of the name engages with society but, since I can't tell my Arcimboldo from my Jan van Eyck, that's one argument that I will bodyswerve. The exhibition will be showing work by artists such as John Byrne, Joyce Cairns, Grant Clifford, Calum Colvin, Gareth Fisher and Gordon Munro.

Sticking with high culture but this time in low, in fact ankle-level, places, Scottish Opera is in the middle of a tour of opera for babies. Initially, the Baby O project sounds like the sort of pushy parent hot-housing for which the guilty should be punished by a public burning of all their Boden outfits. Dig beneath the surface and it looks less like an exercise in middle class one up-manship and more like a fun half hour. Grasping that toddlers are unlikely to sit through the Ring Cycle, Baby O features trained opera singers imitating ducks, bees and wellies splashing in water. It's hard to imagine Maria Callas lending her lungs to quacking, but if you think wee James might like it then Baby O is at Eden Theatre in Inverness this weekend.

For more information, www.nationaltheatrescotland.com; www.barrie2010.org.uk;

www.royalscottishacademy.org; www.scottishopera.org.uk

• This article was first published in the Scotsman, May 8, 2010