Peter Pan Evaluation

Barrie's most famous creation, Peter Pan, first appeared in his 1902 novel The Little White Bird. Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, was first performed in London in 1904. It was transformed into the novel Peter and Wendy, published in 1911.
Peter Pan started in Kensington Gardens in 1897. By then Barrie was rich and famous as a novelist and playwright but unhappily and childlessly married. 

Walking his St Bernard dog Porthos he met two delightful little boys, George and Jack Llewelyn Davies, aged five and four, enjoying an outing.

Tiny Scotsman, huge dog. The boys were tickled pink and instinctively knew Barrie was one of them.

A child at heart, that is. To us it would all seem dead fishy – a dwarfish loner in his 30s befriending children in a park – but in those days innocence was presumed.

The brothers (there were to be five in all) were sons of the lovely Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, wife of a barrister. She was from the literary Du Maurier family (novelist Daphne is its most famous member) and her brother was the actor Gerald Du Maurier, who would twirl his moustache splendidly as Captain Hook in the original Peter Pan.

BARRIE found what he had been looking for all his life – a happy mother and a brood 

of boys he could call his own.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_and_Wendy

Peter is an exaggerated stereotype of a boastful and careless boy. He claims greatness, even when such claims are questionable (such as congratulating himself when Wendy re-attaches his shadow). In the play and book, Peter symbolises the selfishness of childhood, and is portrayed as being forgetful and self-centred.

Peter has a nonchalant, devil-may-care attitude, and is fearlessly cocky when it comes to putting himself in danger. Barrie writes that when Peter thought he was going to die on Marooners' Rock, he felt scared, yet he felt only one shudder. With this blithe attitude, he says, "To die will be an awfully big adventure". In the play, the unseen and unnamed narrator ponders what might have been if Peter had stayed with Wendy, so that his cry might have become, "To live would be an awfully big adventure!", "but he can never quite get the hang of it".^[

He and the boys together invented Neverland, Tinkerbell, Nana the dog, the Lost Boys and the crocodile with the ticking clock. They had wonderful adventures and Barrie became part of the family, known as Uncle Jim. So farso good.

When The Little White Bird was published in 1902 (the bones of the Peter Pan story) it was hailed “one of the most charming books ever written”.

From the beginning of the novel, the narrator focuses on a mother: Mrs. Darling. She dreams of having children; unfortunately, she must first convince her husband that children are financially viable. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, she gets her husband to agree to have kids. A mother’s role is not in measured in numbers or money; it is rooted in the homely: the house, the stories, the children. When Wendy and her brothers fly away, Mrs. Darling is devastated, but she does not give up on her children. She leaves the window open, awaiting their return.

I really enjoyed the way the performance turned out to be, if I had a chance I would easily do it again. This performance was one of my favourite plays that I have taken part in, I really enjoyed my time with my team mates practising the whole play, and fixing up mistakes that we done. Everyone was contributing and doing their best towards the play.



Im really proud of everyone and how hard everyone was working during rehearsals. Each rehearsal everyone was concentrated in their work and done their best to complete it they way its meant to be done. I really enjoyed it when we had to start singing the songs that were given to us as Lost Boys. We had more than enough time to practise singing with the music group and memories the song lyrics by heart, which for me it wasn't hard at all. What was a little bit tricky was the lyrics while dancing, because at the end of the play, we had a little dance and it was really confusing to sing and dance at the same time. We had enough practise to fix our mistakes and what we did wrong, which then it became much easier to do.

I was playing a character from lost boys, i had a made up name 'tiddles'. My aim in the play was help all other lost boys, make Peter Pan proud and wishing Wendy was our mother. I had a small role which I didn't complain about because I was happy with whatever I would get. The original six boy's in "Peter Pan" are named, Nibs, Tootles, Slightly, Curly, Twin One and Twin Two. The lost boys found themselves in Neverland after falling out of their prams as babies, according to the story. My role was the seventh lost boy named Tiddles.



My favourite scene in the play was the fight scene where the lost boys fight against the pirates and Peter Pan vs Hook. The fight was very dramatic and enjoyable to watch, well, at least from our point of view. We had a lot of time practising that particular scene because we had to be careful because there were a lot of actors in the stage with fake sword just swinging by, and others like myself jumping and kicking. We had a couple run through's to check that everything is turning out the way we wanted it to be. I really enjoyed being in that scenes, because, even though its not real life, even though your just acting, it still feels as if your actually fighting the pirates. The adrenaline and the energy into the fight scene was really good which I was amazed by my team mates.


The lost boys were described as;


Tootles is described as the most unfortunate and humblest of the band, because 'the big things' and adventures happen while "he has stepped round the corner". His is the one who shoots Wendy with a bow and arrow after Tinker Bells tell them Wendy is a bird that Peter wanted killed. When Tootles realises his mistake, he asks Peter to kill him. Wendy however survives, and Tootles is spared. Though he is clumsy and silly.
Tootles is the first to defend Wendy when she wants to return to London.



Nibs is described as happy and confident, possible the bravest Lost Boy. The only thing he remembers about his mother is that she always wanted a cheque book and says he would love to give her one - if he knew what it was.



Slightly is described as the most conceited of the boys, because he believes that he, unlike the others, remembers what life was before he was 'lost'. However, most of his 'memories' are either based on misunderstandings; for example, he claims to know what his last name is because his pinafore had the words "Slightly Soiled" written on the tag.



Curly has curly hair, hence his name. He isn't very smart but very loveable. Curly is also a little limid but has a kind heart. He's the one who sings with Wendy after the Lost Boy's finish singing "Our House" from the play.



The Twins - First and Second Twin know little about themselves as they are not allowed to because Peter Pan does not know what twins are, and no Lost Boy is allowed to know anything that Peter doesn't.


Tiddles is a made up character by myself. The reason why is because there were seven of us actors and everyone got their character. I had to come up with my own character name and its purpose to the play. I believe the name Tiddles is a decent name for a Lost Boy as it sounds really familiar to the other Lost boys names. I've described Tiddles has a helpful boy who wants nothing but the best for all the other lost boys especially for Peter and Wendy. Tiddles best moments were when Wendy was telling them Stories at night.