Writers and Composers: Dave Carey, Jo Collins, Hector Dogliani, Ashley Driver, Phil Haines, Will Laurence, Cara McInanny, Paul Morall, Sebastian Ross and Aine Smith

Directors: Michael Bossisse and Louise Perry

4 stars

This powerful show opens with one of Chickenshed’s trademark large ensembles of storytellers, one of several groupings in this strong and moving show. They resemble refugees and come from all over the world, eager to tell, share and adapt their stories, so we’re immediately and firmly on Chickenshed’s inclusive wavelength.

Then Cara McInanny, as Grandmother, begins to unravel the story of Peter Pan with her grandchild, a narrative to which the show returns from time to time to remind us that this is a story about stories. It’s a successful and rather neat device which stresses the ownership of stories.

Chickenshed, currently celebrating its 50th anniversary, is a theatre company which trains (from infancy to degree level), nurtures and employs children and adults of all backgrounds and abilities using theatre as a development tool. For a show like Pan, it casts in the lead roles a core of talented, experienced adults, most of whom have come up through the Chickenshed training route and now work for the company as teachers, mentors, leaders or developers.

Children and young adults form the huge supporting ensembles. There are five rotas (Purple rota at the performance reviewed on 05 December) at different performances, each comprising over 150 young people. This means that Chickenshed directors are working with a cast of 800. It sounds an unlikely enterprise, but with imaginative, phenomenally well-disciplined choreography, it works astonishingly well. And along with cartwheels and some beautiful down-stage balletic lifts, it sometimes includes a wheelchair or a child who has to be led by other actors. We get a whole stage of pirates and another of lost boys, making good use of all the levels on Andrew Caddies’s set. It all fits together with seamless professionalism.

Jonny Morton is excellent as Mr Darling and Hook, snarling, cackling, plotting, and then collapsing whenever he hears the reptilian ticking. Bethany Hamlin delights as the ever-reasonable, caring, distraught Mrs Darling, and Ashley Driver has the vulnerable but hilarious Smee perfectly. Tristan Manzi, the only character who actually flies on wires, is one of two alternating Peters. He’s perfectly petulant and a very lithe performer.

Shiloh Maersk is charismatically good to watch, too. Integral signing, by most cast and ensemble members at different points, is a given in a Chickenshed show. Maersk, however, is rarely off stage and signing almost continuously, as well as taking part in complex choreographed sequences.

Meanwhile, in a cage above upstage left is a rotating band with over 40 youth members. Skilfully directed, they make a wonderful sound and, along with powerful singing, the music drives the show.

Runs until 11 January 2025