PETER PAN IN SERANGOON GARDENS by W!ld Rice

“It’s a Neverlanding Spectacle”

Reviewer: Cordelia Lee
Performance: 17 December 2019

Children soar over the stage this yuletide season as Wild Rice returns with its annual Christmas pantomime. This year it’s Peter Pan of Serangoon Gardens, a local take on J.M Barrie’s beloved children’s story.

The ageless boy Peter Pan flies into the home of three Singaporean siblings just as academic pressures and parental expectations threaten to smother their childhood. Emblematic of escapism and youthful innocence, Peter offers them a ticket to carefree adventure and perpetual youth in Neverland, to which they readily accept.

Akin to Wild Rice’s pantomimes of Christmases past, this one brims with spectacle from start to finish.

Characters take flight on stage, somersaulting in the air with the support of safety harnesses. Fight scenes between Peter and his nemesis Captain Hook resemble a stereotypical good-versus-evil showdown, complete with swashbuckling action and fancy footwork. Meanwhile, cross-dressing mystical creatures exude an air of ridiculous flamboyance. Clad in luscious wigs and glittering scales, a pair of drag mermaids flutter their false lashes and coo in falsettos in one scene, vying for Peter’s attention. In a separate scene, Peter’s overgrown fairy TingTong Bell prances around stage wearing a tight pink tutu and a sassy attitude; she showers the pre-flight children with fairy-dust as she goes, speaking in Pig Latin to mask her “itchy-bay omments-cay”.

The aerial tricks, melodrama and absurdity line-up one after another, garnering a chock full of laughter from the audience. It’s hard to tear my gaze away from the stage; I admit I’m enthralled.

But while Peter Pan can’t grow old, two straight hours of pure spectacle can. I can’t help but wonder if there’s a greater message or sociocultural issue waiting to be highlighted through all of this.

If anything, there is a brief attempt to provoke the audience into critically considering the effects Singapore’s education system has on our children. The jaunty overture that opens the production, “Time For A Story”, carries a conundrum in its cheery melody that hits very close to home. A chorus of sleepwear-clad children break into synchronised choreography on stage whilst belting in unison their desire to be read a bedtime story, desperate to drift off into a dream-like world of fantasy and adventure before the realities of school-life resurface at dawn. The sonorous voices emanating from the adult ensemble, however, adamantly oppose. Their reasons and rationale are delivered sternly, rhythmically shutting down the children’s pleas. And these stay in my head long after the last note ends:

“PSLE coming soon! Finished your revision? Think about your future first. No time to be a child!”

The life of an average Singaporean child is amplified in these lyrics for all to scrutinise. The perennial question concerning Singapore’s education system resurfaces: Is it robbing our children of their childhood? They’ll excel, but at what cost?

But as the play proceeds, the little focus that this sociocultural issue gains unfortunately tapers off, lost amidst the fantasy, larger-than-life characters and fast-moving plot.

Nonetheless, Wild Rice’s proclivity for revising classical tales for a Singaporean audience once again creates an epic theatre experience for the young and young at heart.

It’ll whisk you away to a magical land where you won’t need to think too hard.