playbill vip

By Amy Cole-Farrell, Dean of Visual and Performing Arts

Jeremy Bloom’s play, Peter/Wendy, is based mainly on JM Barrie’s 1911 novel Peter and Wendy as well as from his earlier work The Little White Bird, where the character of Peter Pan (and mention of his goat) first appears. While the well known animated and musical versions of Peter Pan were created for children, Bloom’s curation of Barrie’s writing in Peter/Wendy has the reluctant (or accidental) adult in mind, distilling the story to its essence, trading spectacle for imagination, and mining its melancholy. Growing up is hard. Adulting is boring. Peter knows this in his bones and, whether due to the fact that he is not quite human or because of his sheer determination, he can never grow up. Wendy is lured by Peter’s promise of childlike adventure, while also being eager to step into her own adulthood. This contrast speaks to the deliberate difference between the title of this play and the novel. JM Barrie’s Peter and Wendy reads as the pairing of an inseparable team. Bloom’s Peter/Wendy suggests a division between the two: Where Peter will never grow-up, Wendy is ready to embrace that journey. What Peter sees as carefree, Wendy begins to see as careless.

Growing up is hard, and irresistible, and glorious.

Adulting is boring, and righteous, and beautiful.

And so, there are nightlights. 

My work on this production is dedicated to 

Catherine Dearborn

October 11, 1950 - October 27, 2024 

born on a star