Theater Review -- Happily ‘Ever Ever’

Tom Titus

The concept of Peter Pan, Wendy and Neverland friends growing up is

hardly unique -- Steven Spielberg explored it cinematically about 15

years ago in the underappreciated “Hook.”

Playwright Katherine Burger has given James M. Barrie’s characters new

dimension -- as dotty oldsters -- in “Ever Ever,” unveiled for the first

time Monday as a staged reading in South Coast Repertory’s NewSCRipts

series.

What makes this particular exercise so appealing is the fact that, for

the most part, the actors performing the roles also have been together

almost since childhood. All but two of the six parts are filled by SCR

founding artists -- actors who were part of the initial South Coast Rep

season on the Newport Beach bayfront back in 1965 and ’66.

Burger’s vision places Peter, Wendy and Captain (now Mr.) Hook together

in a decaying Manhattan brownstone apartment, along with two other

elderly gentlemen (presumably a pair of the Lost Boys), where they have

evolved into what these characters might actually have become had

circumstances permitted it.

Peter (played with manic exuberance by Richard Doyle) is now a balding,

middle-aged actor seeking out stage and television roles, often to no

avail. He still refuses to grow up, or make an emotional commitment to

Wendy (Martha McFarland), who has become a recluse even with all the

company in attendance.

Hal Landon Jr., who once played Captain Hook in a college production of

“Peter Pan,” reprises this character as a sensitive milquetoast devoid of

swashbuckling derring-do, but still a stickler for “good form.” He’s also

carried a torch for Wendy over these many years.

The newcomers to the story -- “Tiggy” and “Weasel” -- have grown

intellectually, but in few other respects. Tiggy (John Frederick Jones)

is a genius wordsmith one would hate to oppose in Scrabble, while Weasel

(John-David Keller) guards his books and his beloved dog with equal zeal.

This time, the sinister figure isn’t Hook, but the seagoing predator who

pursued him -- the character is called Crocker Dial, and interpreted with

understated reptilian glee by Don Took. Burger has turned him into a

would-be slumlord out to take over the apartment, raze it and erect new,

more expensive digs.

Splendidly directed by Lillian Garrett-Groag, “Ever Ever” stirs the

memories of the Peter Pan movies, from Disney to Spielberg, while

embellishing the characters with the trepidations of encroaching old age.

Doyle in particular is supremely effective at conveying the soul of a boy

who never wanted to grow up and resists responsibility with every sinew

of his being.

Though it’s just a staged reading, Garrett-Groag establishes the

important scenic dimensions of the play and leaves the rest to the

audience’s imagination. SCR’s coterie of veteran performers fills in the

blanks with enthusiasm and dexterity.

It’s entirely possible that this NewSCRipts reading may lead to a full

production, as have many other SCR shows first tested in this fashion --

“Search and Destroy,” “Freedomland,” “Collected Stories” and “Three Days

of Rain” among them.

Should this occur, both James Barrie and Walt Disney should be smiling

down from the Great Beyond on “Ever Ever.”

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews appear

Thursdays and Saturdays.