THE HANGOVER REPORT — Bedlam’s confounding, playful PETER PAN dissects and jumbles J.M. Barrie’s text

The company of Bedlam’s “Peter Pan” at the Duke on 42nd Street.

The company of Bedlam’s “Peter Pan” at the Duke on 42nd Street.

I recently had a chance to catch up with Bedlam’s fascinating, scatterbrained Off-Broadway adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan at the Duke on 42nd Street. Bedlam, as led by artistic directors Eric Tucker (who both directs and stars here), has made a name for itself for dissecting classic works from the ground up. The quality has varied, but certain productions (Hamlet, Twelfth Night/What You Will, Saint Joan, to name a few) stand out in my mind as some of the most exhilarating evenings I’ve spent in the theater in recent years.

With Peter Pan, the folks at Bedlam have gone one step further by tampering with the text itself. The result is a fractured, self-referencing  adaptation that attains further dissonance when combined with Bedlam’s organic, collective storytelling aesthetic. Happily, despite at times confounding this theatergoer, I still thrilled to the company’s playfully audacious yet disciplined, highly-choreographed approach. Much of the production’s success is due to the skilled and committed cast, whom I applaud for taking a communal leap of faith with Mr. Tucker.

RECOMMENDED

 

PETER PAN
Off-Broadway, Play
Bedlam at the Duke on 42nd Street
1 hour, 45 minutes (without an intermission)
Through December 23

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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