Fayetteville: TheatreSquared presents Peter and the Starcatcher

Fayetteville’s TheatreSquared presents Peter and the Starcatcher, A play by Rick Elise based on the novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, music by Wayne Barker, December 3 through January 3. 

Peter and the Starcatcher is a wildly innovative, Tony Award-winning retelling of how an angst-ridden orphan became the immortal Peter Pan. Critically acclaimed for its mix of “lighthearted brilliance and existential shadow” (The New Yorker) - with a dozen actors juggling stagecraft, music and 100 characters—TheatreSquared’s epic-scale co-production with the Arkansas Repertory Theater will delight audiences of every age.  

Peter and the Starcatcher is a play based on the 2006 novel of a similar name by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, adapted for the stage by Rick Elice. The play provides a backstory for the character Peter Pan, and serves as a prequel to J. M. Barrie's Peter and Wendy. 

“Miraculous. Spectacle, wit and joy spill out of this production like treasure from a magic pocket.” – New York Magazine  

Vulture.com’s Justin Davidson wrote, “Peter and the Starcatcher is a tiny show, but spectacle, wit, and joy spill out of it like treasure from a magic pocket. A cast of twelve, a couple of trunks, and a versatile length of rope yield more storytelling than most oversize spectaculars can manage. There’s a naval battle, an island full of savages, and a mermaid chorus, all packed onto a stage that feels no bigger than a conch shell. It’s a measure of the production’s low-tech delights that when Molly, the cast’s sole female, ingests a dose of ‘starstuff,’ crosses her legs and levitates, genie-style, it looks like a miraculous effect, even though we can clearly see the plank, the pivot, and the hand on the seesaw’s other end.” 

TheatreSquared’s performances of Peter and the Starcatcher will be in the Studio Theatre at Walton Arts Center’s Nadine Baum Studios. Play dates are Wednesdays through Sundays, December 3 through January 3. Tickets range from $10 to $70, and may be purchased online at www.theatre2.org, or www.waltonartscenter.org.

The Gayly - 11/30/2015 @ 2:56 p.m. CST