Peter Pan
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Night trip to Neverland
• "Peter Pan" conquers the dance stage in Görlitz •
DANCE for YOU MAGAZINE
February 20, 2024
by Volkmar DRAEGER
"Music by Leonard Bernstein for a musical about Peter Pan? Well, not for a complete musical, but as supplementation and indeed as acoustic vitalization for a theatrical production on Broadway in 1950. And because Bernstein himself was unable to attend the rehearsals, the producers at the time merrily tinkered away at the score. It was only after 2000 that Bernstein's original sheet music was rediscovered and prepared for a faithful reproduction, including the songs and their lyrics from the composer's hand. Dan Pelleg and Marko E. Weigert, the directors of the dance company at the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Theater in Görlitz, were able to acquire the performance rights to the original - and have created from it a musical-like dance piece that is evidently worldwide unique. The story of the boy who refuses to grow up, as conceived by Scottish author James Matthew Barrie around 1902 and then set down in a play and book, was given its own interpretation in the city by the river Neisse. And in a co-production of dance company and music theater, it runs for a very entertaining 75 minutes.
Photos © Paweł Sosnowski
It takes place in the dormitory of an orphanage. And to make it clear that it's probably all just a dream, set designer Markus Pysall has designed the room to have a sloping perspective and the walls to be lopsided, all in white right down to the floor. Mr. Darling runs the home and is a stickler for tidiness. His wife, on the other hand, lets the children get away with a fair few things, allowing them to romp about the beds and then listen to their bedtime story: the one about Peter Pan. This encourages them to act it out. Beforehand, Brieann Pasko, as the singing Wendy, reflects on who she is, as well as on death and rebirth. Things however do not stay that earnest. Because Peter, a street urchin friend, tumbles in through the window, dances with Wendy and catches his shadow again, which had got caught in a trunk. When Mrs. Darling catches the children playing around at night, she lets balloons out of the closet for them to enjoy. This inspires them to dress up in the roles of the story being read. Build my house of wood, urges an aria. The children take this literally and quickly transform the beds into a hut, a house of love. The older children from the next room, played by the singing ensemble, also join them. One of them plays Captain Hook: Eat blood, drink blood, he demands with a wink and a thirst for revenge.
The Pan story has its protagonists. Hook chases Peter onto a tower of beds to starve him to death, Wendy frees him and they both dance happily below. Then Peter is to be poisoned, Tinker Bell sacrifices himself, but can be revived. The huge ship's mast, to which the pirates tie Wendy, is also made of bed parts. When this also fails, Hook wants to throw everyone overboard: The children bravely let themselves fall into a bed from a plank that folds out of the wall. Symbolically, three jolly mermaids appear. Hook feels scorned and laments, with great tragedy and in a grand aria, that no children love him. Finally, there is a battle between pirates and children, in this case a merry pillow fight. Mr. Darling puts an end to the raucous commotion. Transformation back into a dormitory. Almost all the children leave for foster parents, only Wendy stays. Dream with me tonight, she sings to Peter. But he escapes through the window back to his street freedom.
Choreographers Dan Pelleg and Marko E. Weigert have staged their piece with a light hand in collaboration with the dance company, knowing that two separate departments had to be united in Harmony. The way Buyan Li as tenoral Hook and especially soprano Brieann Pasko's Wendy have integrated themselves into the contemporary movement language commands respect. Wendy allows herself to be lifted and flung by Peter, rolls over his back and is always present in her performance. Jacob Borchert Vahlun as the lively Peter is a supportive partner. The directors use an abundance of creative gestures, can rely on the playfulness of the entire team and achieve dance of format in the duets as well as in some ensembles. They are actively supported by Bernstein's music: between ringing sounds, rippling water and birdsong, delicate tones and syncopated tension, reminiscent of his masterpiece "West Side Story", which premiered just seven years later in 1957. The degree of life breathed into it by the New Lusatian Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of GMD Ewa Strusinska rounds off the evening. It will be interesting to see whether "Peter Pan" conquers other theaters to imitate it. In Görlitz, at any rate, it elicits cheers of enthusiasm from the audience.
For the Pelleg-Weigert duo, the Görlitz adventure draws to a close in their thirteenth season and after many successful productions: they are returning to Berlin, where they will once again operate as the wee dance company. They will be succeeded by the Italian Massimo Gerardi at the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Theater as the new ballet director and probably with a different artistic direction.