Living is an awfully big adventure, suggests Theresa Heskins's upbeat version of JM Barrie's play, which downplays the dark heart of this malleable masterpiece, and Peter's insistence that dying will be an awfully big adventure. Indeed, Neverland looks like a giant children's playground, a fantasy of slides and swings. That's not to say this production doesn't have sly emotional depths as it meditates on play, motherhood and why you should always leave the window open – just in case your children eventually decide to come back. It's good advice, even for families who haven't had their children abducted by a boy who refuses to grow up, and it's unobtrusively delivered.
Just as last year's adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe played to the particular strengths of the New Vic's in-the-round configuration, so this fluid show has a simple, clever design and irons out some of the Edwardian flounces that have attached themselves to the play over the last century. There are some lovely touches, including a Nana who is half-man and half-dog, and an outsize skeletal crocodile that looks like it crawled out of the Natural History Museum. It doesn't have much of a tick-tock, but Hook displays an unusually developed death wish. It's a pity, though, that this Hook is rather underpowered, and even more of a pity that children so associate the role with panto that they react in laughter mode. Played right, Hook is one of theatre's great roles, a character of tragedy and cruel comedy.
Luckily, there's a good, stroppily insecure Tinkerbell from Ali Robbins, a John from Philip Labey who tests the limits of his courage, and an ingenious solution for the flying, with the lithe young cast using silks to terrific and sometimes joyous effect.
