Disney classic comes to JHS

Alice Webster, Student editor

Recently, the JHS theatre department took on a classic: Peter Pan. A staple of many childhoods, particularly due to the Disney film, the story has nested itself in people’s hearts. Despite this timeless standard, JHS rose to the challenge.

The JHS production starred Kyla Pattie in the titular role, Zach Large as Captain Hook, and Amiah Mather as Wendy Darling. All provided excellent performances; Mather capturing Wendy’s motherly spirit; Large bringing comedy and intimidation to Hook; Pattie portraying Peter’s adventurous and whiny nature. The fight scene between Hook and Peter Pan, which they took into the audience, was perhaps the highlight of the show. Also excellent was the rest of the ensemble, particularly the pirates, whose comedic nature was wholly enjoyable. The bit at the beginning when Peter is trying to find his shadow is well done with Jenny Smith donning a morph suit and mimicking Pattie’s movements to create the effect.

However, being a classic, some outdated ideas were included in the work. The Indian tribe was made up of entirely non-Native American actors, which doomed this aspect of the production before it began. Tiger Lily, the most heavily featured member, covered her face in a frankly unrealistic and offensive amount of face paint. Their war call was also overdone. While there is certainly racism intrinsic in the script, such glaring oversights severely marred the experience. In fact, the racism of Peter Pan begs the question of whether such shows should continue to be produced without editing or, perhaps, at all by virtue of their “classic” status alone.

 Otherwise, the production was fairly entertaining. Many fans of the Disney movie may have been put off by Pan’s whiny nature, but that is for them to take up with J.M Barrie. In fact, while the Disney movie paints Pan’s life more glamorously, Barrie’s original message was in favor of growing up.

Overall, Peter Pan was a well done production with a few glaring flaws that this reviewer cannot exclude from consideration.