Peter And The Starcatcher Play Analysis

On Thursday, October 15th, I saw a Virginia Repertory rendition of Peter and the Starcatcher at the November Theatre in Richmond. Based on a book by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, the play was adapted by Rick Elice and was originally produced on Broadway. The play begins in a port in the British Empire where we meet the characters, including Molly, the spirited daughter of Lord Aster, who the play follows on her adventure and journey to becoming a full-fledged Starcatcher. Her father travels aboard the Wasp with a chest supposedly containing the Queen’s treasure and a crew of pirates. Molly travels aboard the Neverland with a decoy chest full of sand and three orphaned boys, one not even having a name. The chests are swapped before departure

During a fight between the Neverland sailors and the Wasp pirates, the unnamed boy gets the name Peter and is washed to shore with the treasure chest. While trying to keep it away from the pirates, Molly and the boys run into island natives, the Mollusks. Peter tries to act as a distraction to lure the Mollusks away, but he falls into a hidden shimmering lake with a mermaid who gives him a last name: Pan. Everyone makes it back to the beach and Black Stash holds Molly hostage in exchange for the chest; Peter Pan realizes that his only option is to submit to the pirate’s wishes. When Black Stash opens the chest, they find the starstuff has been dissolved, after which Black Stash admires Peter Pan’s bravery and vows to be his foe from that point onward. Peter Pan is destined to remain on the island because of his immersion in the lake of starstuff water and his transformation into the boy who will remain a boy. Molly, distraught, must go back home with her father, but in future years her daughter will return to the island and visit Peter

The section of planks hanging moved up and down in the background, creating a sense of waves and constant motion while the scenes aboard the ships were taking place. The opening scene at the port was one of the few in which there were no added elements to define the space and its limits. While on board the ships, the characters moved from section to section of the ship, and the changing wall and room dimensions were defined by using the actors to represent the walls of the ship. When a small cabin doorway needed to be represented, a rope was draped in the shape of a doorway and held by the actors as they acted as though they were walls. On the occasion that the side of a side needed to be represented when on deck, a rope was pulled across the stage, with an actor at each end holding it taut, which provided a reference point for when someone fell or was thrown