Peter Pan
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A vivacious affair
The theatre in Görlitz surprises with an adventurous performance of "Peter Pan" set to music and lyrics by Leonard Bernstein.
By Gabriele Gorgas
"Growing up is such a barbaric affair... full of unpleasantness" [back translation] / J. M. Barrie, in the original book "Peter Pan"
Scottish author James Matthew Barrie's story of a boy who experiences incredible things in Neverland has long been widely known and much loved. And it tells the adventures of "Peter Pan" with various twists and turns, tells of heroes and villains, can be found again in literature, on stage, in film... Which the imaginative characters and settings downright call for.
In Görlitz, choreographers, dancers, singers and musicians from the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Theater have now joined forces with many others to take on this story, particularly incorporating the corresponding music by Leonard Bernstein as well as his lesser-known song lyrics (based on Barrie) into their version of "Peter Pan". The concept and staging by Dan Pelleg and Marko E. Weigert has resulted in a "dance piece for the whole family", which recently premiered at the Görlitz Theatre. Which, as an elderly lady explained to her grandchildren shortly before the start of one of the performances, is the "little Dresden Semperoper". Well, one could also see it that way.
It is certainly an adventurous endeavour, because the effort involved is immense and vast. If only to accommodate everyone and everything visibly on the stage, and with the multitude of crazy ideas that the story calls for. At times, the audience loses the "overview" or "perspective" before things calm down again, especially in the occasionally rather curiously populated large dormitory of the orphanage.
But the "too much" certainly doesn't put anyone off. The abundance and whimsicality on stage, as well as the possible occasional confusion in the room, drive no one to desperation. Ultimately, Markus Pysall's unfussy, unconventional set design ensures this. It is impossible to overlook the many surprises it holds in store – noticeably finding the right balance for the quaint stage space.
Above all, he creates all sorts of possibilities for the dancers, skilfully transforming the beds in the dormitory, for instance, into adventurous "airstrips" or a climbing tower, associating "loopholes" in the wall panels and featuring a wonderfully crooked hanging window with a "view through" as well as a means of "jumping into the play".
Nothing is impossible in this performance. And yet sometimes it's also too much. So that one is truly grateful when the scene becomes manageable again, when the hustle and bustle of too much and too many somewhat calms down. As with the tumult, the jostling on stage as the dancers meet and the truly curiously outfitted ladies and gentlemen of the opera chorus as mermaids and pirates with their whimsical songs. Sometimes you lose the overview, the perspective, the outlook...
Perhaps the Neue Lausitzer Philharmonie with its musicians in the orchestra pit has a little more "leeway". And so, under the truly committed musical direction of Ewa Strusinska, they valiantly ensure that the Bernstein composition (until now apparently more widely known from concert halls) comes across as fresh and free, as well as accompanying the stage events in its very own inspiring way.
The two choreographers and dancers Dan Pelleg and Marko E. Weigert, long-time artistic directors of the wee dance company, which is also well known in Dresden, have been working as imaginative "dance bosses" at the GHT since 2011. And it is obviously primarily thanks to them and others who helped that this "Peter Pan" dance piece exists now as a world premiere in Görlitz. Which could certainly also be inspiring for others.
So should you go and see this "Peter Pan" dance piece? Absolutely. Everyone knows, the younger ones in any case, that theatre is a vivacious affair that lives from the moment and from atmospheric proximity, where (with a bit of luck) you are also quite close to the action, to transfigurations that take place right in front of everyone's eyes. Which, as we all know, can be a lot of fun.
Next performances: Saturday and Sunday, both at 6 p.m., ticket telephone 03581474747 Internet: www.g-h-t.de