Ribix Productions / The Mill Theatre | Review by Grace Cassidy
Sparkling Spin on Peter Pan is Pure Magic
20 September 2025
We’ve barely taken our seats when an elven-like being materialises in front of us. With a cheeky grin, wild curls and patchwork overalls, she bounces on the balls of her feet and asks, “What’s your favourite story?”
Peter Pan is not a play you would necessarily think could be told in The Mill Theatre’s intimate performance space; the journey to Neverland is traditionally teeming with pirates, Lost Boys, a fictional Native American tribe (generally rife with racial stereotypes), and the occasional errant crocodile. The Mill’s stage is tiny, with room to seat an audience of just 67. Yet Peter/Wendy, playwright Jeremy Bloom’s intimate, pared-down spin on J.M. Barrie’s classic tale, fits within the space perfectly.
Stepping into Ribix Productions’ whimsical staging of Peter/Wendy is like stepping into the mind of a child, or into a forgotten room of your childhood. Pages from books are folded carefully against walls that glitter with fairy lights. Curling ivy and happy thoughts like “tomato soup” and “the sound of rain” creep up the walls in scrawling chalk. In the centre of the stage, a child sleeps.
The show, directed by Rachel Pengilly, begins with the cast sneaking into the audience. From us, they take two things — our favourite stories and our happy thoughts. The latter, you may remember, is a necessary ingredient to fly to Neverland. My friend and I are approached by the immensely talented Phoebe Fielden. After stealing a favourite story from me (Pixar’s The Incredibles) and a happy thought from my friend (the smell of books) she hops back onto the stage and transforms into a Lost Boy.
The differences between Peter/Wendy and the original Peter Pan are minute but ultimately allow for a smaller, more playful re-telling. The story diverges in tiny ways, strips away some of the larger plot points, and narrows down the cast to the essential characters. Wendy (Veronica Baroulina) is now an only child, Tiger Lily (Sarah Hartley) is a flower without a tribe, Peter (Joshua James) totes just one Lost Boy and instead of a bawdy crew, Hook (Heidi Silberman) has just one pirate — Smee (Mark Lee).
A major divergence is that Hook is played by the same actor who plays Mrs Darling, Wendy’s mother. The role of Hook is usually played by Mr Darling. In both versions, this dual casting is one of the many things about the play that blurs the line between real and unreal. Pengilly’s production blurs this line even further by filling Neverland with blanket forts and patchwork costumes (gorgeously crafted by set and costume designer Helen Wojtas). It feels much less like an adventure, and more like a childhood game.
Despite these changes, the play still feels much like the original. Veronica Baroulina’s Wendy is sweet and idealistic but also rule-abiding; she yearns to break free of social constraints but becomes increasingly anxious without them. Joshua James’ Pan is appropriately boyish and mischievous, with a concerning undercurrent of apathy. Chipz is a standout as Tinker Bell with a hilariously dry delivery, injecting every line with a delightful dose of sarcasm and wit, and Phoebe Fielden is heart-wrenchingly sweet as the Lost Boy, embodying a child who loves to play but at heart, desperately wants to go home.
Ultimately, Peter/Wendy is a gorgeous production, but in many ways it’s so similar to J.M. Barrie’s play that it struggles to stand on its own. Entire scenes have been lifted from the original; dialogue is copied word for word. Some audience members might be shocked by the show’s choice to portray Pan as a darker character, indifferent to murder — indeed if your only reference for Peter Pan is Disney’s animated film, this may be startling — but in many ways, Pan’s darker inclinations are as old as the story itself. The titular character’s more villainous tendencies have been present since Barrie’s original novelisation of the story in 1911, where it’s suggested that Peter kills Lost Boys who dare to grow up (“The boys on the island vary, of course, in numbers, according as they get killed and so on; and when they seem to be growing up, which is against the rules, Peter thins them out”). When a story has spent more than a century in the zeitgeist, it’s difficult to find an original point to make. With that in mind, it’s hardly surprising that the story told in Peter/Wendy doesn’t feel particularly fresh, but the way Rachel Pengilly tells it is undeniably so.
Packed with mischief, adventure, fairy lights and childhood nostalgia, Ribix Production’s intimate staging of Peter/Wendy is pure magic. With a powerful cast and a set that feels like something from a dream, this promising young production company puts on an excellent show, and their cozy take on an iconic play is an exciting glimpse of what I hope is great things to come.
Grace Cassidy is a writer and aspiring actress. Over the past two years, she has fallen in love with Canberra’s theatre scene by participating in theatre workshops, acting in local short films and getting involved in the Canberra Youth Theatre’s Emerging Artist programs. Grace is passionate about storytelling and has a soft spot for theatre that explores complex family relationships, ride or die friendships, and themes of hope.
