Why is the story of Barrie’s Peter and Wendy so enduring?
Lee Breuer: I see the story as Barrie’s autobiography in code and his life ended as a tragedy. The story is that when Barrie’s brother died as a child the mother went mad and would only recognise Barrie if he imitated his brother’s voice as a little boy hence Barrie could not ever grow up if he wanted to be loved. It is a very compelling story. The List Why did Mabou Mines decide to adapt it for the stage? LB: Though many people know the story of Peter Pan, as far as we are aware no-one has ever adapted the novel of Peter and Wendy for the stage before so it was appealing in that we were the first people to tackle it. There are many layers to the story and so many themes and meanings, making it rich material for us to adapt. The List: How did you set about adapting it? LB: We knew right from the start that we wanted to use puppets rather than a cast made up solely of actors. We have utilised a special blending of two classics puppet theatre techniques – Japanese Bunraku and Balinese Wa
