ROY GUMPEL
& WRITERS; “EVER EVER” WILL BE READ ON MAY 27.
FORECAST
THE ODD FELLOWS THEATER, HOME OF ACTORS
I WON'T GROW UP! “I don’t want ever to be a man, I want always to be a little boy and to have fun,” says Peter Pan in J.M. Barrie’s classic novel Peter and Wendy (most often published now simply as Peter Pan). In the story, Peter invites a young girl, Wendy Darling, to come with him to Neverland and be a mother to his brood of Lost Boys. Wendy’s brothers John and Michael join her in Neverland, and as we all know, many thrilling adventures ensue, some involving the beloved Tinkerbell and evil Captain Hook. In the end, Wendy returns to London, leaving Peter in his perpetual state of pre-adolescence in Neverland. A new play, “Ever Ever,” explores the idea of Peter as a mark of maleness, and treats Peter Pan and Wendy’s relationship as symbolic of male-female relationships. “Peter Pan refuses to grow up,” explains Katherine Burger, author of “Ever Ever.” “He is the consummate solipsist, the eternal self-centered child, and has devolved from J.M. Barrie’s rarefied English icon into a buzzword in popular culture for a man who embodies these traits.” In “Ever Ever,” Burger poses the theatrical question: What would happen if the eternal boy was forced to grow up—if Peter’s pearly white baby teeth fell out, would he remain a child emotionally? Barrie wrote several versions of Peter Pan. In one version, Captain Hook isn’t killed by the crocodile, but goes back to London. It was from this variation that Burger drew inspiration for her play. In “Ever Ever,” Wendy, Peter, and the Lost Boys have grown up, and are living in a flat in New York City. Captain Hook, who has also fled from near-deserted Neverland, is their landlord. Wendy has created a home rich with games and ritual in an attempt to bring the youthfulness of Neverland to New York, but Peter continues to defy aging by living in a world of mourning. He can’t accept the loss of the island, and his magic. The play was written specifically for performance by a six-member theater group in Costa Mesa, California. “The given set-up of five men and one woman, seasoned actors who had evolved beyond ingénue roles, intrigued me,” said Burger. “Looking at their pictures on my wall, I tried to get a sense of who they could be, as a group, as individuals. When I thought of Wendy and the Lost Boys I knew I’d found a template that offered the starting point I needed. I wanted to write about Peter Pan and Wendy, long after the fairy tale has ended.” “Ever Ever” will be performed as part of the Actors and Writers Reading Series at the Odd Fellows Theater in Olivebridge on Saturday, May 22 at 8pm. Actors and Writers is a 26-member ensemble of theater and film professionals who live in the Hudson Valley. Admission is free. (845) 657-9760. —Jenna Hecker
5/06 CHRONOGRAM.COM FORECAST
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