Peter and the Starcatcher makes its debut
“It’s a beautiful play, it’s really, really funny, and it’s great for kids. But it’s also great for adults. [It’s] really theatrical and magical,” said Daryl Cloran, Artistic Director at Western Canada Theatre and director of the Canadian premiere of “Peter and the Starcatcher.”
The play opens at Western Canada Theatre (WCT) on Nov. 27 and will run until Dec. 6.
Andrew Kushnir as the Boy and Holly Lewis as Wendy showcase their talents in “Peter and the Starcatcher.” (Kim Anderson/ The Omega)
“Peter and the Starcatcher is the prequel to Peter Pan, so it imagines how Peter became Peter, how Hook got his hook, and how the Lost Boys got lost, and the invention of all those characters,” Cloran said.
The lead roles are played by Andrew Kushnir as the Boy, Holly Lewis as Molly, Evan Buliung as Black Stache, Amitai Marmorstein as Prentiss and Stephen Jackman-Torkoff as Ted. The lead roles are a handful of the twelve talented actors working on this production. These actors and others play multiple roles and make excellent use of the audience’s imagination throughout the play.
Adapted for the stage by Rick Elice, this Tony Award-winning Broadway play was based on the children’s novels by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, and has never before been performed in Canada.
“I saw it on Broadway a couple years ago and it’s so imaginative and so exciting that I reached out to the Broadway producers to get the rights. We are the very first Canadian production ever,” Cloran said. “So if you want to see this show anywhere in Canada, you have to come to Kamloops.”
(Kim Anderson/ The Omega)
This holiday season, audience members of all ages can look forward to an inventive play full of imaginative stagecraft, daring battles, lively songs and finding oneself.
“He [the Boy] kind of starts out with no identity, not even a name, and over the course of the story, turns into all of our childhood heroes, Peter Pan. I think we all have stuff like that, where we feel sort of lost and don’t really know who we are, where we stand, and what to make of something,” Marmorstein said.
This production’s ideas about imagination and dreams immediately drew Jackman-Torkoff in.
“It’s about really giving into your dreams and these things you believe in, and being a brave person, because in the world, it happens to me all the time, you can become very passive, and just kind of let life go by you,” Jackman-Torkoff said. “There’s something in this play that I find, like all your dreams, all these things are possible. You can get what you want, but you have to be an active participant in that. You have to keep having faith, you’ve got to believe.”
During this often hectic pre-Christmas season, make time to take a journey into your own imagination and off to Neverland with “Peter and the Starcatcher.”
