Review: The Further Adventures of Peter Pan: The Return of Captain Hook (Theatre Royal Bath)

Review by Seth Wilby

⭐️⭐️⭐️

How do you rate a pantomime? They are, by definition, not conforming to the stereotypical views of what makes ‘good’ theatre. The story is nearly nonexistent, the puns are shockingly bad, and each scene is so predictable that the audience knows exactly what to shout out. On top of that, is it even December if you haven’t heard a soap star butcher your favourite musical theatre songs? Yet there’s something so inherently festive about it all that we can’t help but love it. You show an American a classic panto, and they’d be totally flummoxed, but audiences who have grown up with it love them for all their quirks - and Bath’s annual offering is a great example as to why.

Written by Jon Monie, The Further Adventures of Peter Pan: The Return of Captain Hook is a sequel to the original Peter Pan story, following Pan’s further adventures now that Captain Hook has returned (who would’ve thought an eleven-word title could summarise the whole plot?) Although unusual for a panto to be an original sequel, the choice does have several benefits, allowing for the story to be incorporated neatly into the mayhem due to it having been created specially for this purpose, avoiding the incoherence in genre faced by many pantos. That said, the audience’s unfamiliarity does mean the storyline has more heavy-lifting to do, restricting the fun from reaching its full potential.

Taking place nearly a century after the original tale, the story follows Wendy Darling’s great-great-granddaughter, the smartphone-obsessed Emily Darling, played by a likeable and fun Bobbie Chambers, as she travels to Neverland to help warn Peter Pan (a maximally pantomimic Marcus J Foreman) of the imminent threat of Captain Hook, as anticipated by Tinker Bell (Holly Atterton, rollerskating around with a youthful energy). Along the way, Tinker Bell ends up kidnapped by Hook, and Emily and Peter have to save her. The story really is that simple, and it needs not do any more, accomplishing that near-impossible juggling act of plot and not that pantomimes need to succeed.

Monie’s script is delightfully funny, packed to the brim with puns you can’t help but laugh at, either from their remarkable wit or their pure stupidity. The jokes are integrated into the story seamlessly, providing a pleasurable consistency, and the dialogue is sprinkled with an ideal amount of innuendo, which is loved by the adults but treated with such little emphasis that no kid could even pick up on it. Monie understands what makes a pantomime funny, never trying to make his jokes too complex, and saturating the script with so many that it would be impossible for an audience not to laugh.

A classic example of what panto should be, Charlotte Peters’ direction ensures the energy never falters, and the writing displays a familiarity with the demands of the genre, ensuring a high frequency of humorous dialogue and upbeat musical numbers. Making the most of all this year’s music has offered, we are treated to pop parodies galore, from the obligatory Golden to a medley of Dancing Through Life and Dancing In The Moonlight (something you could only ever get in panto), all of which make for a toe-tappingly fun time. On top of this, as the pirate crew, comedy acrobats the Nitwits (Mark Nixon, Jack Robbins, and Sammi Roddi Morgan) bring an entertaining variety through some applause-inducing skits.

Monie also performs in the show, as Smee, now the Captain of a Pleasure Cruise ship. Marking his twenty-third Christmas season in Bath, Monie has been performing in the panto for longer than a lot of the audience has been alive, with many of the crowd having grown up with him as their panto star, and this bond shows, creating a palpable connection almost instantaneously. His self-referential jokes are brilliant (upon entering the ‘Creepy Cove’, he geniusly quips that he’d “better bring a bench”), and his delivery is top-notch, but I wish there was more room for ad-libbing with his fellow castmates- these are highlights of most pantos, and the show would’ve benefited from feeling less regimented.

Sarah Jane Buckley is another stand-out as Ethel Mermaid, dishing out sea-based puns like there’s no tomorrow. Buckley has a natural cheeriness ideal for panto, and her energy is infectious- only upon her first appearance at the end of act one does the show truly pick up pace. As Captain Hook, Tristan Gemmill milks the role for all the boos he can get, achieving the right balance of evil so as not to scar the kids in the audience for life. Pantomimes always benefit from a cast willing to have fun, and this cast (paired with the enthusiasm of both the adult and child ensemble) allows that aspect to fly.

Despite all its successes, the panto still seems to be missing something- the audience. It takes far too long to get them on side, and the awkwardness of the first forty-five minutes is hard to shake. The first few scenes are very plot-heavy, and there's nothing to warm the audience up, such as starting with a Smee scene. The audience is a character of their own in pantomime, and this production doesn’t help them fulfil that role, leaving it feeling slightly heartless. 

There are also several structural issues that affect the pace- the classic ‘singalong and shoutouts’ scene should be placed a few scenes earlier to avoid pitching to an already-bored audience, for example. Most notably, though, the scenes without the pirates are a dull contrast to the fun elsewhere. Emily, Peter and Tinker Bell are all ‘straight’ characters, and there’s no one to bring that enthusiasm and consistent enjoyability that the show needs. By all means, scatter in a few dramatic scenes, but our happiest thoughts shouldn’t be thinking of when the show can move on from this scene.

How do you rate a pantomime? For most, it can be on either soul or spectacle, with very few managing both. Bath, however, manages neither, lacking a stand-out moment to make me feel like I’d never grown up. That doesn’t mean it’s not fun, though- there's plenty to enjoy, and, if you’d made a panto bingo board, it would be hard to find another show that could tick so many off. There are great songs, hilarious jokes, and an overall festive feel, and sometimes that’s all we need.

The Further Adventures of PETER PAN: The Return of Captain Hook plays at Theatre Royal Bath until 11th January. Tickets from https://www.theatreroyal.org.uk/events/the-further-adventures-of-peter-pan/

Photos by Stewart McPherson