by Ella Hickson
WENDY. Why didn’t you tell me?
PETER. The reason the stars shine is because each star is a Lost Boy reflecting his mother’s tears as she looks up into the night, wishing him back. That’s why they look like they are made of water.
WENDY. But that’s so sad and the stars are so beautiful.
PETER. It’s not really sad – the Lost Boys get to watch over their old families for a while and see that they are okay.
WENDY. How do we get him back, Peter? When will he come down again?
PETER. At the very first moment that every member of the family has been truly happy again, for just one moment – that’s all it takes, one second of pure happy – the Lost Boy is released – he lands on Neverland and he is free to play – for ever.
WENDY. But I don’t want to forget him. I love him.
PETER. You don’t forget the boy, you just forget to be sad; just for a moment.
Pause.
WENDY. But I’ve been trying – I’ve been trying so hard to forget and I’m tired, Peter. I feel like I’ve been sad for such a long time… and I can’t seem to /
PETER. / Just one happy thought – pure happy.
WENDY stops panicking and looks at PETER. She then looks out at the night and from somewhere deep inside her she pulls the strongest bit of fight that she’s ever found. WENDY stands – puts both feet on the edge of the cloud…
WENDY. I am Wendy Darling. I am brave and I am strong and I am going on an adventure.
WENDY steps off the cloud and flies, soars out over the clouds – it’s wonderful.
I’m flying, Peter! I’m flying!
PETER leaps off the cloud and flies with her – they swirl and swoosh. WENDY flies. PETER can’t take his eyes off her.
Come on, you wally!
PETER. Wendy Moira Angela Darling, you are flying!
WENDY. I know! It feels amazing!
PETER (staring right at her). You look really… happy.
WENDY. Wooohoooo!
PETER. Wooohooo!
Laughing, joyous – they land.
WENDY. Look – there – Peter! A shooting star!
WENDY turns to PETER. He is already looking at her as if he has seen something new.
What?
PETER kisses WENDY.
A kiss?
Beat.
PETER. No. (Blushes and looks away.) That’s a kiss – around your neck.
WENDY. Well, what was that, then?
Pause. They stare at one another – as if everything were understood and everything were possible if only PETER might kiss her again. WENDY moves toward PETER to touch him again but PETER pulls away.
PETER. It is only make-believe – isn’t it – that I am Father?
WENDY. Oh – um – of course.
PETER. I want to always be a little boy and to have fun.
Pause. They look at one another for a moment. WENDY is heartbroken.
WENDY. Well then… I shall leave you to play.
WENDY soars back down to the ship. PETER is left in the stars a little moment. He watches her go.
Scene Two
WENDY lands. The LOST BOYS, TINK, MICHAEL and JOHN have dressed up in pirate’s gear and are having a great time pretending to be buccaneers – on the prow, at the wheel. MARTIN and TINK are in one corner together. The LOST BOYS part and reveal TOM, beaming. WENDY sees him and can barely speak – tears fill her eyes, she doesn’t want to touch him for fear he isn’t real.
WENDY. Tom?
TOM. Hello, Wendy.
MICHAEL runs forward and hugs his little brother. JOHN holds his hand out. TOM goes to shake it, but JOHN gives in and gives him a huge squeeze.
MICHAEL. Where have you been?
TOM. Oh – just – hanging around.
JOHN. I wish you’d been here for battle. I would have had you as my wingman.
MICHAEL. I could have shown you my fireflies – there were hundreds!
MICHAEL and JOHN step aside a little bit. WENDY has clear sight of her little brother.
WENDY. Come on, then.
WENDY holds her arms open and TOM runs into them. She squeezes him very tight, and has a little sniff of his hair. She gets a little teary.
It’s very good to see you.
TOM. Thanks for getting me down.
WENDY. I’m so sorry I took so long –
TOM goes in for another ginormous hug and WENDY hugs him back.
Mother and Father will be so – oh, come on – get your things – John, Michael – we’re going home. We’re taking Tom home.
The LOST BOYS approach and crowd around TOM, pushing WENDY backwards. The LOST BOYS inspect him as if he were some sort of specimen.
TOOTLES. We can tell from his eyebrows.
SLIGHTLY. His feet are just the right size.
NIBS. He’s got the height for bubble ball.
CURLY. And the look of a custard-lover.
MARTIN. Takes one to know one.
TOM. I do love custard – almost as much as cake. Talking of which, I’m very hungry.
WENDY. Of course, when we get home Mother will cook us the most /
TOM. / I feel like I want – worms and custard.
SLIGHTLY. Good choice, old chap, good choice.
WENDY. But, Tom, we –
NIBS. He’s a Lost Boy.
CURLY. You can just – tell.
WENDY. No, he’s Tom Darling and /
TOM. / Isn’t it fun?
WENDY. Yes. Yes it is – well, maybe we’ll stay. We can stay – can’t we, John? Michael? We could stay in Neverland – with Tom – couldn’t we? You’d like that. I could be Mother and – and Peter could be Father and –
TINK comes and gives WENDY a squeeze.
TINK. We’ll look after him, I promise.
JOHN. Wendy – we need to go – I’ve got big school starting in September.
MICHAEL. And I want to see if my seedlings have sprouted.
WENDY. No but /
NIBS. / Full formation for operation ambush!
TOM. I might not be very good.
TOOTLES. Don’t worry, I’ll show you how.
WENDY. Can I play?
NIBS puts his hat on TOM’s head. The LOST BOYS charge away, laughing. TOM has turned away, involved and having lots of fun. WENDY can’t stop staring at TOM.
Tom?
JOHN. I think it’s home time, Wendy.
WENDY. I’m ready.
PETER stands and watches as TINK sprinkles the children with fairy dust and they are up – up and away. Meanwhile, the LOST BOYS hoot and play beneath them. PETER stands for just one second more – WENDY goes to wave to him but he turns, crows and dashes away. As the children fly away from Neverland, they hear the wild crowing of PETER PAN singing through the air.
Scene Three
In the Darling House. MR DARLING sits alone in the nursery. The house is in a mess. MRS DARLING enters, she is carrying a small holdall and wearing her hat and coat. She turns on a lamp.
MRS DARLING. Boy, why are you crying?
MR DARLING (with total delight). Mary?
MRS DARLING takes off her hat and puts down her bag. MR DARLING starts dashing about, trying to straighten himself out – tidying up and trying to pull some sort of clothing on over his long johns. He ends up with a very floral rug around him, looking quite daft and pacing manically.
Now – look, Mary – I know you’ve joined the other side – I saw it in the paper – those, those Suffragette women – I know it – so if they’ve sent you back here to mock me or kidnap me or burn me at the stake or whatever it is they do to the enemy – I – I – I – shall – I shall – I’m not without reason but I shall –
MRS DARLING. George – /
MR DARLING. / I shall be amenable to all your requests – I shall cook more and – and – I shall learn how to do that clothes-flattening thing – even though it seems a very difficult thing to master, I have no idea how you do it –
MRS DARLING. George!
MR DARLI
NG. I shall listen more and talk less /
MRS DARLING. / George!
MR DARLING. No listen, Mary – please – please understand – that I do not want you here through duty, it has been my privilege that a woman such as you has chosen to live alongside me and, more – chosen to be my wife. Such a privilege, the kind I never even dreamt of as a young man – and yet I allowed myself to take that choice for granted and for that I will always be sorry, very sorry indeed. I have only ever wanted you here through love and love alone.
MRS DARLING. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you cry.
MR DARLING wipes his tears on the back of his sleeve. He looks like a little boy for a moment.
MR DARLING. I thought you’d gone.
MRS DARLING. Gone? Never.
MR DARLING. But you took your dresses.
MRS DARLING. I went to see about an opening for a seamstress in King’s Cross. I took my dresses so I could show them what I was capable of. They kept me several hours for a trial and then afterwards we just talked – talked and talked of fascinating things, George – of the rights for workers and suffragettes and education and /
MR DARLING. / Mary.
MRS DARLING. Now before you get angry, it is only two days a week and I can still take the children to school and pick them up afterwards – and I’ll have time to manage the household and the little extra money means you can stop working extra cases.
Long silence. MR DARLING looks at MRS DARLING.
MR DARLING. You are so clever. Clever enough to solve a problem rather than just… It sounds like a wonderful idea.
MRS DARLING. Really?
MR DARLING. And what’s more you have your smile back. You have your smile!
MRS DARLING. And you have yours.
MR DARLING. Hello, old friend, I have missed you. I had almost forgotten how – how – (Thumps his chest.) how much it makes me want to dance to see you smile!
MR DARLING sweeps MRS DARLING up in his arms and begins to waltz her round the room.
MRS DARLING. George – you’re mad!
MR DARLING. Mad! Mad! Mad!
They whoop and whoosh around the room – laughing. They come to a stop and look at each other softly.
Let us go out! Let us get the children and go out! We can go skating!
MRS DARLING. I’ve missed them all day, are they playing in the parlour?
MR DARLING freezes.
MR DARLING. No, you took them with you – I presumed they were at your mother’s.
MRS DARLING. I left them sleeping in here this morning. I said there was breakfast on the table.
MR DARLING. I thought you meant for me!
MRS DARLING. George!
MR and MRS DARLING, alarmed, start searching the nursery – the bathroom, in cupboards. They both look under the beds for just enough time for WENDY, MICHAEL and JOHN to bowl out of the cupboard, so that they are standing, smiling sweetly, when their parents pop their heads up from under the bed. MR and MRS DARLING swoop in and scoop them up with hugs and kisses.
MR DARLING. There you are!
MRS DARLING. Oh, my lovely children. Come here!
JOHN. We were fighting pirates!
MICHAEL. And I led a whole army of fireflies!
WENDY. And I organised a whole battle! I flew, Mother, I flew!
JOHN. Were we gone long? Was it years? Did you miss us terribly?
MR DARLING. It was a whole day.
JOHN. It can’t possibly have been only a day. Father, you are fibbing and I won’t have it.
The children laugh.
MR DARLING. You see – now it is almost dark.
JOHN. But.
MRS DARLING. I am so glad of you all… and relieved that you are safe.
MRS DARLING shoots a slightly accusatory look at MR DARLING.
MR DARLING. Come on – we are going to go skating and then we will stop somewhere fancy for cake.
MRS DARLING. And then we shall come home and sit by the fire and tell stories.
WENDY. I am so pleased you and Father are smiling.
MRS DARLING. I am sorry we didn’t do it sooner.
MR DARLING. And I am sorry it has been hidden by this silly thing! It shall be gone by morning.
JOHN. I for one, Father, am very glad – it was getting close to the point where I was going to have to say something.
MR DARLING. Oh God. Yikes.
MR DARLING scoops up JOHN and MICHAEL in a big hug. JOHN also puts his arms right around his father with relief.
Mary?
MRS DARLING wants to follow them but looks anxiously back at the window, thinking there might just be one more child to fly through. She can’t quite tear herself away.
MRS DARLING. You go; I’ll be down in just a minute.
Beat.
MR DARLING. Last one downstairs is a jibbering jubber-dummy!
JOHN. Father? How did you know that you wanted Mother to iron your handkerchiefs?
MR DARLING. I think it’s time you and I had a little talk.
MR DARLING leaves with MICHAEL and JOHN. WENDY tugs on MRS DARLING’s dress.
WENDY. Come and have some fun.
MRS DARLING. I am, I will – I just /
WENDY. / It’s okay; I saw Tom /
MRS DARLING. / You did?
WENDY. We have to stop waiting.
MRS DARLING. Yes.
WENDY. We must remember to be happy so he can be happy too.
MRS DARLING. Wendy Darling, when did you become so grown up?
WENDY. I think I’d like to stay little for just as long as the boys, if that’s okay?
MRS DARLING. No more looking after other people – do you hear? You’re not to have one more thought about me – or the boys – or your father. It’s my turn to look after you – just as I should.
WENDY. What? Why are you looking at me funny?
MRS DARLING. There in the corner of your mouth.
WENDY. What?
MRS DARLING. A kiss.
WENDY. Pf, no – what? No way. Ugh. What do you mean?
MRS DARLING. And what’s – this – in your pocket, it’s glowing – a – a thimble covered in fairy dust. I think I understand. I think I remember.
WENDY (taking the thimble from her mother). He must have put it in my pocket – I knew he’d kept it! I knew it mattered! Oh, boys! They’re so silly!
MRS DARLING. That they are.
WENDY. Shall I show you how to fight pirates?
MRS DARLING. Yes!
MRS DARLING draws one of JOHN’s swords on WENDY.
WENDY. Draw your sword, you blundering, blubberous buccaneer!
MRS DARLING. You don’t stand a chance, you swaggering swine!
Mother and daughter clash, laughing vigorously as they go – leaping up high and rolling around on the ground.
MICHAEL/JOHN/MR DARLING. Come on, you two! Hurry up!
MRS DARLING races out of the room, pulling on her coat. WENDY looks at the thimble one last time. She makes as if she is going to look out the window – but no – instead she pulls on her coat and runs out after her mother. The nursery is empty – and yet… at the window… if you look hard enough, there’s half a shimmer, for just a second, of a flying boy with spiky hair.
End.
J.M. BARRIE
James Matthew Barrie was born in Scotland in 1860. After graduating from Edinburgh University, he worked as a journalist, writing his first novel, Better Dead, in 1887. After some success in Scotland with his fiction, Barrie moved to London to pursue his career as a playwright in the 1890s.
He married actress Mary Ansell in 1894, but it was not to be a happy union and they eventually divorced in 1909. It was while escaping his troubled home life in the late 1890s, walking in Kensington Gardens, that he met the Llewelyn Davies brothers, and in them found the inspiration for his best-known work, Peter Pan. Barrie was to be made guardian of the Llewelyn Davies boys following the death of their parents.
Peter Pan first appeared in Barrie’s 1902 novel The Lit
tle White Bird. The stage play of Peter Pan delighted London audiences when it premiered in 1904, and was a huge success for Barrie. His novel based on the play, Wendy and Peter, was published in 1911, to rave reviews.
Barrie continued to write fiction and plays, though his later work was aimed mainly at adults, and his novels The Twelve-Pound Look (1910) and Half an Hour (1913) contained distinctly darker elements than his earlier writings.
Barrie died in 1937. In his will, he bequeathed the copyright of Peter Pan to Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital in London. Peter, the Lost Boys, Wendy, Captain Hook and all the denizens of Neverland live on in countless much-loved stage and screen adaptations, ensuring that Peter Pan really is the boy that will never grow up.
ELLA HICKSON
Ella is an award-winning writer whose work has been performed throughout the UK and abroad. In 2013–14 Wendy & Peter Pan played to wide acclaim at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Other credits include Riot Girls (Radio 4), Boys (Nuffield Theatre, Southampton/Headlong Theatre/Hightide Festival Theatre), Decade (Headlong Theatre/St Catherine’s Dock), The Authorised Kate Bane (Traverse Theatre), Rightfully Mine (Radio 4), Precious Little Talent (Trafalgar Studios/Tantrums Productions), Hot Mess (Arcola Tent/Tantrums Productions) and Eight (Trafalgar Studios/Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh). In 2011 Ella was the Pearson writer-in-residence at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith and she is the recipient of the 2013 Catherine Johnson Award.
Her short film Hold On Me premiered at the 55th BFI London Film Festival. Ella is writing new plays for the Almeida, Headlong Theatre, the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
A Nick Hern Book
Wendy & Peter Pan first published in Great Britain in 2013 as a paperback original by Nick Hern Books Limited, The Glasshouse, 49a Goldhawk Road, London W12 8QP, in association with the Royal Shakespeare Company
This revised edition first published in 2015
Wendy & Peter Pan copyright © 2013, 2015 Ella Hickson
Ella Hickson has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this adaptation
This adaptation of Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie published with permission from Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity
Cover image: Mariah Gale as Wendy. Photography by Charlie Herranz. Design by RSC Visual Communications.
Designed and typeset by Nick Hern Books, London
