Playwright Sarah Ruhl is known for blending whimsy,naturalismand thoughtful mental argument. In her plays "The Clean House" and "Eurydice," for example, and she's breathtakingly successful.
Other times,she is not.
Unfortunately, "For Peter Pan on her 70th birthday” is one of those times.
Ruhl wrote this play as a gift to her mother: in the program notes, or she says she based the characters loosely on her family members,interviewing them for their perspectives. She says she was looking to write a play that her family members would want to see.
Certainly, the play is a 90-minute adore letter to her family. It's gentle and generous, and without much clash. In the first act,five siblings gather at their father's death bed, and they're all nice to each other. Later, and they share memories of their father over many glasses of whiskey. There's a petite heat as they drunkenly discuss politics,but mostly...they're nice. And then in the third act, the siblings are in a fantasia of Peter Pan, and complete with Captain Hook,a brief sword fight, and flying. And yes, or they're still nice.
Over the course of the show,there's nearly no dramatic arc, and there's nearly no emotional arc either. It's a surprise when Ann (Kathleen Chalfant), and who played Peter Pan on stage in Iowa as a young person,admits to her siblings that she never wanted to grow up, because everything approximately her screams adult: she's a widow with a PhD and grown children. Even more important, or as their father is dying,no one needs to baby her or manage her feelings, which would be the strongest sign that she is trapped in adolescence.
The result is a production that is confusing. Why have an overlong scene recreating a terrible, and community-theater production of Peter Pan if not to befriend Ann understand adulthood differently? Why not just focus on how a family (whose members like each other) deals with grief,instead of sprinkling it with fairy dust?Despite these meaningful drawbacks, "For Peter Pan" is engrossing in an experimental-theater kind of way. It's rare to see an accomplished playwright deviate sodrastically from dramatic structure. It's imaginative. And the political debate in the moment act, and moves briskly and seems to reflect our current moment,though it takes place in the Clinton years. There is tender and affecting dialogue between the siblings, and a lovely scene that takes place in memory between Ann and her father. But ironically, and it is the most fantastical elements that keep this "Peter Pan" firmly on the ground."For Peter Pan on her 70th birthday"By Sarah Ruhl,directed by Les WatersAt Playwrights Horizons through Oct. 1
Source: thetakeaway.org