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Peter Pan and Other Plays
For some 20 years at the beginning of the century J M Barrie enjoyed enormous commercial success with a wide variety of plays, but he is best known for Peter Pan. It retains its popularity today, both in the original and in adaptations. Barrie returned to the Peter Pan story a few years later with When Wendy Grew Up when the two are reunited later in Wendy's life.
As well as being the author of the greatest of all children's plays Barrie also wrote sophisticated social comedy and political satire, much of it now newly topical. The Admirable Crichton and What Every Woman Knows are shrewd and entertaining contributions to the politics of class and gender, while Mary Rose is one of the best ghost stories written for the stage.
As well as being the author of the greatest of all children's plays Barrie also wrote sophisticated social comedy and political satire, much of it now newly topical. The Admirable Crichton and What Every Woman Knows are shrewd and entertaining contributions to the politics of class and gender, while Mary Rose is one of the best ghost stories written for the stage.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
About the author
J.M. Barrie
1,928 books2,175 followersWhimsical and fantastic works of British writer Sir James Matthew Barrie include the play
Peter Pan
(1904).
People best remembered today Scottish author and dramatist James Matthew Barrie, first baronet, who in order of merit created Peter Pan.
Barrie, the son of a weaver, studied at the University of Edinburgh. He took up journalism for a newspaper of Nottingham and contributed to various journals of London before moving in 1885. His early Auld Licht Idylls (1889) and A Window in Thrums (1889) contain fictional sketches of Scottish life and commonly representative of the school of Kailyard. The publication of The Little Minister (1891) established his reputation as a novelist. During the next decade, Barrie continued novels, but gradually, his interest turned toward the theater.
In London, he met Llewelyn Davies, who inspired him about magical adventures of a baby boy in gardens of Kensington, included in The Little White Bird, then to a "fairy play" about this ageless adventures of an ordinary girl, named Wendy, in the setting of Neverland. People credited this best-known play with popularizing Wendy, the previously very unpopular name, and quickly overshadowed his previous, and he continued successfully.
Following the deaths of parents, Barrie unofficially adopted the boys. He gave the rights to great Ormond street hospital, which continues to benefit.
People best remembered today Scottish author and dramatist James Matthew Barrie, first baronet, who in order of merit created Peter Pan.
Barrie, the son of a weaver, studied at the University of Edinburgh. He took up journalism for a newspaper of Nottingham and contributed to various journals of London before moving in 1885. His early Auld Licht Idylls (1889) and A Window in Thrums (1889) contain fictional sketches of Scottish life and commonly representative of the school of Kailyard. The publication of The Little Minister (1891) established his reputation as a novelist. During the next decade, Barrie continued novels, but gradually, his interest turned toward the theater.
In London, he met Llewelyn Davies, who inspired him about magical adventures of a baby boy in gardens of Kensington, included in The Little White Bird, then to a "fairy play" about this ageless adventures of an ordinary girl, named Wendy, in the setting of Neverland. People credited this best-known play with popularizing Wendy, the previously very unpopular name, and quickly overshadowed his previous, and he continued successfully.
Following the deaths of parents, Barrie unofficially adopted the boys. He gave the rights to great Ormond street hospital, which continues to benefit.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
January 20, 2020
4.5/5stars
For how much I love Peter Pan, I had never read the original play! This is very nearly identical to the novelization of the story, and was kinda surreal to read because it seems that Disney was using this manuscript nearly word for word in the movie version they created. Obviously this was wonderful, though I do prefer the novel to the play just for the fact that I get more enjoyment from a full novel with descriptions and Barrie's beautiful writing than a play (though, it had a lot more writing/stage directions that I thought it would!). Also, this was the first time reading Peter Pan since I read "Little White Bird" and everything is beginning to connect... next I'll be re-reading the novel!
For how much I love Peter Pan, I had never read the original play! This is very nearly identical to the novelization of the story, and was kinda surreal to read because it seems that Disney was using this manuscript nearly word for word in the movie version they created. Obviously this was wonderful, though I do prefer the novel to the play just for the fact that I get more enjoyment from a full novel with descriptions and Barrie's beautiful writing than a play (though, it had a lot more writing/stage directions that I thought it would!). Also, this was the first time reading Peter Pan since I read "Little White Bird" and everything is beginning to connect... next I'll be re-reading the novel!
April 8, 2019
The Admirable Crichton
What if Lord of the Flies happened, except everyone is adult and civilised? Of course, this was written decades before William Golding's only good book and Barrie's aims were more by way of social satire via comedy of manners than getting in-yer-face with the underlying brutal savagery of human nature, papered over by civilisation. Which in turn was JG Ballard's favourite theme, though he probably never quite succeeded so spectacularly.
But back to Barrie: You can rip through this in no time and be gently amused but it's about an alien world for most of us - hardly anybody has even one live in servant any more of course, let alone an entire staff of hierarchically minded people presided over by a Butler who keeps everyone rigidly in their places. Probably why it's nowhere near as famous as a play about a boy who never grew up - because we all had a childhood, whenever or wherever we lived.
Peter Pan & When Wendy Grew Up
The Boy Who Never Grew Up: Tragic figure or victorius immortal? You decide. A clever, witty meditation on childhood, imagination and growing up, appreciable in contrasting ways by the young and the old in the audience. A challenge to stage, even now, I suspect, and an acting challenge for the cast, too, I would guess. Delightful, bitter-sweet and perhaps made more so by the addition of the short When Wendy Grew Up, often staged as a coda to the action of Peter Pan.
What Every Woman Knows
I don't really want to spoil the plot of this play at all. It's about a plain-looking woman who is under-estimated by everybody, written when the women's suffrage movement was under way but not yet successful and published first in the year 1918 - when women first got the vote in Britain. It's depressing how relevant this play is a century later.
I found it delightful - far better than either The Admirable Crichton or Peter Pan (and I liked both of those). Gentle comedy based on a preposterous initial incident leads to an examination of gender roles and questions particularly, what men value as compared to what they perhaps should.
Mary Rose
What an odd little play! Themes of magic, islands and suspended aging re-appear but the brevity leads to thin characterisation, thus making it less moving than perhaps it should be.
What if Lord of the Flies happened, except everyone is adult and civilised? Of course, this was written decades before William Golding's only good book and Barrie's aims were more by way of social satire via comedy of manners than getting in-yer-face with the underlying brutal savagery of human nature, papered over by civilisation. Which in turn was JG Ballard's favourite theme, though he probably never quite succeeded so spectacularly.
But back to Barrie: You can rip through this in no time and be gently amused but it's about an alien world for most of us - hardly anybody has even one live in servant any more of course, let alone an entire staff of hierarchically minded people presided over by a Butler who keeps everyone rigidly in their places. Probably why it's nowhere near as famous as a play about a boy who never grew up - because we all had a childhood, whenever or wherever we lived.
Peter Pan & When Wendy Grew Up
The Boy Who Never Grew Up: Tragic figure or victorius immortal? You decide. A clever, witty meditation on childhood, imagination and growing up, appreciable in contrasting ways by the young and the old in the audience. A challenge to stage, even now, I suspect, and an acting challenge for the cast, too, I would guess. Delightful, bitter-sweet and perhaps made more so by the addition of the short When Wendy Grew Up, often staged as a coda to the action of Peter Pan.
What Every Woman Knows
I don't really want to spoil the plot of this play at all. It's about a plain-looking woman who is under-estimated by everybody, written when the women's suffrage movement was under way but not yet successful and published first in the year 1918 - when women first got the vote in Britain. It's depressing how relevant this play is a century later.
I found it delightful - far better than either The Admirable Crichton or Peter Pan (and I liked both of those). Gentle comedy based on a preposterous initial incident leads to an examination of gender roles and questions particularly, what men value as compared to what they perhaps should.
Mary Rose
What an odd little play! Themes of magic, islands and suspended aging re-appear but the brevity leads to thin characterisation, thus making it less moving than perhaps it should be.
September 22, 2020
'i'm youth, i'm joy, i'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg'
read peter pan and sobbed my way through when wendy grew up :'( usually skip the afterthought but i needed a good cry
will read the other plays in the future 💕
read peter pan and sobbed my way through when wendy grew up :'( usually skip the afterthought but i needed a good cry
will read the other plays in the future 💕
May 26, 2015
I read Peter Pan and When Wendy Grew Up to write the latest essay for my Children's Literature course. I am so glad I did. Having watched various versions of this over the years either in pantomime or on the screen (most memorably, the Disney animated feature, Hook and, on a related note, Finding Neverland), I still had never really paid much attention to the story and what it really meant.
This is one of the reasons I am particularly enjoying this last module of my Literature degree. It is giving me the opportunity to delve into those books and stories enjoyed as a child and think more about what they represent.
Peter Pan as a rtagic story, really. Whilst it is full of magic and excitement, it is also about accepting the process of growing up as inevitable and losing the magic but gaining something arguably more valuable: love. Peter is a boy refusing to grow up and in doing so, he is unable to feel as Wendy is starting to learn to feel, which I found to be very sad indeed. I loved reading the stage play version, especially since, as was required, in conjunction with the 2003 film directed by P J Hogan which is a fantastic version of the century-old story.
This is one of the reasons I am particularly enjoying this last module of my Literature degree. It is giving me the opportunity to delve into those books and stories enjoyed as a child and think more about what they represent.
Peter Pan as a rtagic story, really. Whilst it is full of magic and excitement, it is also about accepting the process of growing up as inevitable and losing the magic but gaining something arguably more valuable: love. Peter is a boy refusing to grow up and in doing so, he is unable to feel as Wendy is starting to learn to feel, which I found to be very sad indeed. I loved reading the stage play version, especially since, as was required, in conjunction with the 2003 film directed by P J Hogan which is a fantastic version of the century-old story.
April 4, 2021
The Admirable Crichton: This play strikes me as a kind of cross between Oscar Wilde and Bernard Shaw, with Wilde's wit and criticism of the upper classes, and Shaw's interest in sociology and human nature. The play's central concern is summed by Crichton: "Circumstances might alter cases." And each of the four acts gives us a different set of circumstances and a different case. The play begins in the home of Lord Loam, a peer with radical ideas about equality, who forces his family and servants to pretend to be equals once a month, including the very conservative butler Crichton. Crichton's conservatism is very interesting because it isn't rooted in an absolute preservation of the status quo, but a belief that hierarchies are naturally occurring, but the particular dispersal of authority changes based on the circumstances. This notion is put to the test when the family, Crichton, and a servant girl are marooned on an island when their yacht sinks. In act two, Crichton is still clearly a deferential servant, but he is also best adapted to island life, and his approach worries Lady Mary--who tries to get her father to assert his authority. In the third act, Crichton is unquestionably in charge, exercising an almost dictatorial power over everyone, who in turn behave with extreme deference. At the same time, Crichton has basically Gilligan's Islanded the place up, with electricity, a multitude of tools, etc. created out of virtually no resources. But at the end of act three, a ship arrives and rescues the castaways, bringing them back to London. There they uncomfortably resume their lives from act one, with Crichton as a constant reminder that the family's aristocratic position is entirely arbitrary and that they once behaved slavishly to a servant.
https://youtu.be/Rd6YP6-GU2c
Peter Pan: This is one of the most famous plays in the world, having been done in a number of well-known stage versions, teleplays, movies, and adaptations, including Barrie's own novel version. It tells the story of Peter Pan, a magical boy who takes three British children--Wendy, John, and Michael--to the enchanted Never Land, where they live in a kind of pseudo-family and have adventures with pirates, mermaids, wolves, and Native Americans (referred to in the stage directions with terms now regarded as racist).
What is most striking to me about this play is the instability of family structure. I mean, with Peter, Wendy, and the Lost Boys it makes some sense because they are children playing games. So when they all imagine Wendy is their mother, it's a game, though it also reflects a kind of real longing for home, protection, and the late Victorian/early Edwardian ideal of domesticity. But even the adults in the play don't seem to have a stable conception of family. At one point, Hook plans to kidnap Wendy and have her be the crew's mother (after executing the Lost Boys). I mean, these pirates are full grown adults, and they have the same conception as the Lost Boys that Wendy, a child, can in some meaningful sense be their mother. And in the first act of the play, Mr. Darling and Michael seem to be more like squabbling children of the same age than like father and son, while John plays at being his father and even exerts some authority over Mr. Darling. For a play centrally concerned with the questions of growing up and the role of family, the actual structure through which family operates here is remarkably arbitrary.
https://youtu.be/0lSPYfybtF8
When Wendy Grew Up: This is an exceptionally short work, just one scene long, which follows Peter Pan. Even though it's extremely short, it manages to highlight pretty much every fucked up thing about Peter as a character and about the play Peter Pan. For one thing, it highlights the fetishization of childhood--which is only debatably a bad thing--because Wendy is tormented by the fact that she has grown up in the many years since Peter has remembered to come get her for his Spring Cleaning, and Wendy tells her daughter Jane that she can no longer fly because "it is only the young and innocent that can fly." So Wendy is discarded by Peter basically because she has aged, which is, of course, a major problem in Western societies where older women are often devalued. Another major issue highlighted in the play is that Peter is self-centered and forgets pretty much everyone who ever matters to him. This is first brought up when Wendy describes how he's forgotten Tinker Bell; and Wendy gives a somewhat morbid description of her death. But this forgetfullness is more disturbing when Peter shows back up and Wendy mentions Captain Hook, whom Peter has forgotten. In an incredibly fucked up line, he says, "I forget them after I kill them." First off, that's no good as a general principle--but it highlights the stakes for remaining "young and innocent," which Peter is only able to do by erasing the awareness of how he mistreats others. It's also worth noting that Wendy only mentions Hook, but Peter uses the plural 'them' twice, suggesting that he repeatedly or even regularly kills and then forgets about it (though this acknowledgment suggests at least some level of remembering. And finally, the scene ends with Wendy letting Jane go with Peter to be his new mother and do his Spring Cleaning--and Wendy says that she had always been ready for Jane to take on this role, and that Wendy and Jane will wait for Peter, even though most years he doesn't come, and that someday Jane will have a daughter who will go with Peter to do his Cleaning. I mean, that's pretty disturbing. Wendy is basically committing her entire line of female descent to wait on a boy whose primary characteristic is his self-centeredness.
https://youtu.be/uZ5xYbVsNwI
What Every Woman Knows: This is a great Modern Drama satire, following in the feminist footsteps of plays like Ibsen's A Doll's House or Shaw's Mrs. Warren's profession. The story is about a "self-made" man who has in fact not made himself at all, but is so blinded by his own self-conception that he can't see it. The play begins with a family of Scottish granite merchants named the Wileys--very nouveau riche and still quite rough. They've bought a set of beautiful books that none of them reads, and when they catch a young student named John breaking into the house to read the books, the brothers and father offer him a bargain: they will pay for his education if at the end of five years he will marry their homely sister Maggie if she wants him. The young man accepts, and six years later he has embarked on a career in politics, getting elected to the Commons in his first run. John marries Maggie and begins a brilliant career as one of the Liberal Party's rising stars because of his brilliant turns of phrase in his speeches. However, John soon falls in love with Lady Sybil, a rather useless but charming socialite, and he determines to leave Maggie. Because Maggie knows he doesn't love her (i.e., Maggie), she agrees that she and John should split up after his big speech that could make him so indispensable to the Party that they'd overlook a divorce. So she arranges for John to go to the country for a few weeks to work on his speech, and then (without letting John or Sybil know) arranges for Sybil to go to the same cottage. When Maggie goes to the cottage to visit a few weeks later, John's political patron is dissatisfied with his speech, which is competent but lacks the distinctive wit. Maggie, meanwhile, has revised an earlier draft he had left at home, and when another friend gives that speech to the patron, he is thrilled with it. At the same time, John has realized that Sybil is quite boring and not much inspiration for him as a writer, and Sybil has found John increasingly dull. The revelation that the wit he's so known for comes from Maggie, turning his own strong political ideas into rhetorical masterpieces imminently depresses John, who is forced to confront the fact that he hasn't done everything in his career by himself--quite a blow to the male ego. But as Maggie tells him at the end, this is what women do for their men, allowing them the fantasy of being self-made while all the time working behind the scenes to help.
https://youtu.be/k0pyf6RQFQg
Mary Rose: I'm not really a fan of ghost stories (though I've gotten more into some horror movies and things over the past couple of years), and this is a rather creepy play. Interestingly, it deals with some similar themes to Peter Pan, namely the preservation of youth through a supernatural island--but whereas in Peter Pan it's ostensibly innocent and delightful, here it's distinctly menacing. The play opens with a young Australian soldier just after WWI touring the now vacant house in which he grew up. The caretaker reluctantly reveals that it's haunted, and when (at his request) she leaves to get him some tea, he experiences a kind of hallucination of the past. The house had been inhabited by a middle class family, including their daughter Mary Rose. When a young man named Simon asks to marry her, her parents reveal that when Mary Rose as eleven, they had been visiting the Hebrides and she had vanished from an island the locals believe is supernaturally menacing. She was gone for some twenty days before reappearing believing that only a few minutes had passes. Her parents never told her how long she had actually been gone. Four years after being married, Simon and Mary Rose go back to the island--her on a nostalgic trip and him on a kind of fact finding mission. While there, Mary Rose disappears again. The third act takes place twenty five years later, back in the family home. Simon returns from the sea and the parents give him a telegram, which announces that Mary Rose has returned and she is being brought back that very evening. When she arrives, it's clear that she has aged only an hour, although her parents and husband are a quarter century older. Apparently, Mary Rose then dies at some point, distraught because her child had grown up and run away to Australia--and become the Ozzy soldier who is now touring the house. Mary Rose's ghost appears to him, they converse, and in her final recognition that she's found the son she lost all those years ago, she is finally called to some kind of heavenly rest.
https://youtu.be/iprrTdJJc8o
https://youtu.be/Rd6YP6-GU2c
Peter Pan: This is one of the most famous plays in the world, having been done in a number of well-known stage versions, teleplays, movies, and adaptations, including Barrie's own novel version. It tells the story of Peter Pan, a magical boy who takes three British children--Wendy, John, and Michael--to the enchanted Never Land, where they live in a kind of pseudo-family and have adventures with pirates, mermaids, wolves, and Native Americans (referred to in the stage directions with terms now regarded as racist).
What is most striking to me about this play is the instability of family structure. I mean, with Peter, Wendy, and the Lost Boys it makes some sense because they are children playing games. So when they all imagine Wendy is their mother, it's a game, though it also reflects a kind of real longing for home, protection, and the late Victorian/early Edwardian ideal of domesticity. But even the adults in the play don't seem to have a stable conception of family. At one point, Hook plans to kidnap Wendy and have her be the crew's mother (after executing the Lost Boys). I mean, these pirates are full grown adults, and they have the same conception as the Lost Boys that Wendy, a child, can in some meaningful sense be their mother. And in the first act of the play, Mr. Darling and Michael seem to be more like squabbling children of the same age than like father and son, while John plays at being his father and even exerts some authority over Mr. Darling. For a play centrally concerned with the questions of growing up and the role of family, the actual structure through which family operates here is remarkably arbitrary.
https://youtu.be/0lSPYfybtF8
When Wendy Grew Up: This is an exceptionally short work, just one scene long, which follows Peter Pan. Even though it's extremely short, it manages to highlight pretty much every fucked up thing about Peter as a character and about the play Peter Pan. For one thing, it highlights the fetishization of childhood--which is only debatably a bad thing--because Wendy is tormented by the fact that she has grown up in the many years since Peter has remembered to come get her for his Spring Cleaning, and Wendy tells her daughter Jane that she can no longer fly because "it is only the young and innocent that can fly." So Wendy is discarded by Peter basically because she has aged, which is, of course, a major problem in Western societies where older women are often devalued. Another major issue highlighted in the play is that Peter is self-centered and forgets pretty much everyone who ever matters to him. This is first brought up when Wendy describes how he's forgotten Tinker Bell; and Wendy gives a somewhat morbid description of her death. But this forgetfullness is more disturbing when Peter shows back up and Wendy mentions Captain Hook, whom Peter has forgotten. In an incredibly fucked up line, he says, "I forget them after I kill them." First off, that's no good as a general principle--but it highlights the stakes for remaining "young and innocent," which Peter is only able to do by erasing the awareness of how he mistreats others. It's also worth noting that Wendy only mentions Hook, but Peter uses the plural 'them' twice, suggesting that he repeatedly or even regularly kills and then forgets about it (though this acknowledgment suggests at least some level of remembering. And finally, the scene ends with Wendy letting Jane go with Peter to be his new mother and do his Spring Cleaning--and Wendy says that she had always been ready for Jane to take on this role, and that Wendy and Jane will wait for Peter, even though most years he doesn't come, and that someday Jane will have a daughter who will go with Peter to do his Cleaning. I mean, that's pretty disturbing. Wendy is basically committing her entire line of female descent to wait on a boy whose primary characteristic is his self-centeredness.
https://youtu.be/uZ5xYbVsNwI
What Every Woman Knows: This is a great Modern Drama satire, following in the feminist footsteps of plays like Ibsen's A Doll's House or Shaw's Mrs. Warren's profession. The story is about a "self-made" man who has in fact not made himself at all, but is so blinded by his own self-conception that he can't see it. The play begins with a family of Scottish granite merchants named the Wileys--very nouveau riche and still quite rough. They've bought a set of beautiful books that none of them reads, and when they catch a young student named John breaking into the house to read the books, the brothers and father offer him a bargain: they will pay for his education if at the end of five years he will marry their homely sister Maggie if she wants him. The young man accepts, and six years later he has embarked on a career in politics, getting elected to the Commons in his first run. John marries Maggie and begins a brilliant career as one of the Liberal Party's rising stars because of his brilliant turns of phrase in his speeches. However, John soon falls in love with Lady Sybil, a rather useless but charming socialite, and he determines to leave Maggie. Because Maggie knows he doesn't love her (i.e., Maggie), she agrees that she and John should split up after his big speech that could make him so indispensable to the Party that they'd overlook a divorce. So she arranges for John to go to the country for a few weeks to work on his speech, and then (without letting John or Sybil know) arranges for Sybil to go to the same cottage. When Maggie goes to the cottage to visit a few weeks later, John's political patron is dissatisfied with his speech, which is competent but lacks the distinctive wit. Maggie, meanwhile, has revised an earlier draft he had left at home, and when another friend gives that speech to the patron, he is thrilled with it. At the same time, John has realized that Sybil is quite boring and not much inspiration for him as a writer, and Sybil has found John increasingly dull. The revelation that the wit he's so known for comes from Maggie, turning his own strong political ideas into rhetorical masterpieces imminently depresses John, who is forced to confront the fact that he hasn't done everything in his career by himself--quite a blow to the male ego. But as Maggie tells him at the end, this is what women do for their men, allowing them the fantasy of being self-made while all the time working behind the scenes to help.
https://youtu.be/k0pyf6RQFQg
Mary Rose: I'm not really a fan of ghost stories (though I've gotten more into some horror movies and things over the past couple of years), and this is a rather creepy play. Interestingly, it deals with some similar themes to Peter Pan, namely the preservation of youth through a supernatural island--but whereas in Peter Pan it's ostensibly innocent and delightful, here it's distinctly menacing. The play opens with a young Australian soldier just after WWI touring the now vacant house in which he grew up. The caretaker reluctantly reveals that it's haunted, and when (at his request) she leaves to get him some tea, he experiences a kind of hallucination of the past. The house had been inhabited by a middle class family, including their daughter Mary Rose. When a young man named Simon asks to marry her, her parents reveal that when Mary Rose as eleven, they had been visiting the Hebrides and she had vanished from an island the locals believe is supernaturally menacing. She was gone for some twenty days before reappearing believing that only a few minutes had passes. Her parents never told her how long she had actually been gone. Four years after being married, Simon and Mary Rose go back to the island--her on a nostalgic trip and him on a kind of fact finding mission. While there, Mary Rose disappears again. The third act takes place twenty five years later, back in the family home. Simon returns from the sea and the parents give him a telegram, which announces that Mary Rose has returned and she is being brought back that very evening. When she arrives, it's clear that she has aged only an hour, although her parents and husband are a quarter century older. Apparently, Mary Rose then dies at some point, distraught because her child had grown up and run away to Australia--and become the Ozzy soldier who is now touring the house. Mary Rose's ghost appears to him, they converse, and in her final recognition that she's found the son she lost all those years ago, she is finally called to some kind of heavenly rest.
https://youtu.be/iprrTdJJc8o
September 25, 2011
Pity the good playwright working at the time of one of the greats: to future generations, your work may be lost in the glare. To some extent, that's been the fate of Ben Jonson and Christopher Marlowe—overshadowed by Shakespeare, although their period is so rich that they and many others get produced sometimes. Similarly, a handful of those fated to write during Shaw's long career would probably shine more brightly away from his light, among them John Galsworthy, Harley Granville-Barker, and J. M. Barrie. A double curse befell J. M. Barrie, who overshadowed himself with Peter Pan.
Of the three other full-length works contained in this volume, at least one seems stageworthy still: The Admirable Crichton, which conducts a social experiment on the theme "Circumstances alter cases" that was later more or less repeated by Italian filmmaker Lina Wertmüller. Another play, What Every Woman Knows, might hold the stage if, illustrating Barrie's own earlier theme, circumstances hadn't altered the way his portrait of marriage dynamics is likely to be received. But the third play, Mary Rose, is the most intriguing in biographical terms. Put simply, it's a ghost play that represents Barrie's attempt to fix something in his life and his mother's. I regret having missed a New York production of it, but an excellent account of this wistful, curious, and delicate play can be found in John Lahr's New Yorker review.
Of the three other full-length works contained in this volume, at least one seems stageworthy still: The Admirable Crichton, which conducts a social experiment on the theme "Circumstances alter cases" that was later more or less repeated by Italian filmmaker Lina Wertmüller. Another play, What Every Woman Knows, might hold the stage if, illustrating Barrie's own earlier theme, circumstances hadn't altered the way his portrait of marriage dynamics is likely to be received. But the third play, Mary Rose, is the most intriguing in biographical terms. Put simply, it's a ghost play that represents Barrie's attempt to fix something in his life and his mother's. I regret having missed a New York production of it, but an excellent account of this wistful, curious, and delicate play can be found in John Lahr's New Yorker review.
January 8, 2023
Read for Uni assignment.
Peter Pan is one of the stories I didn't really love as a kid, and I still don't enjoy it now 😂
Peter Pan is one of the stories I didn't really love as a kid, and I still don't enjoy it now 😂
March 29, 2010
Apparently, the magic flying fairy dust was added only after the London Ambulance Service complained about dealing with copycat injuries.
*jumps off bed defiantly*
*dials 999*
*jumps off bed defiantly*
*dials 999*
January 19, 2024
5 stars because I enjoyed ‘Mary Rose’ so much that it eclipsed any other thoughts I had
April 29, 2015
I only read Peter Pan and the extra scene that was performed for its final performance. Barrie apparently continually changed his plays, so it's hard to have an authoritative edition. There's also a novelization of the play, but I don't know. The play is pretty perfect on its own. Adults being children, children pretending to be adults - but also never wanting to grown up. It's a mixed-up world but so incredibly beautiful. I highly recommend this particular edition, as it has excellent footnotes and an introduction.
August 25, 2007
If losing your youth and innocence was painful, J.M. Barrie lovingly and touchingly eases the pain and lessens the redness of the scars. This inevitability is handled with such grace and, yes, forgiveness. We never remember the moment we grew up and never forget the moments when we hadn't.
Best in his collection are Mary Rose (Hitchcock's fave), A Well-Remembered Voice, What Every Woman Knows and Dear Brutus.
Best in his collection are Mary Rose (Hitchcock's fave), A Well-Remembered Voice, What Every Woman Knows and Dear Brutus.
August 27, 2016
Wow, Peter Pan is more complex and interesting than I thought, and it was a delight to find that Barrie had written 'The Admirable Crichton' which I didn't realise was a play.
December 24, 2017
This collection of plays by J.M.Barrie introduces us to his variable writings of staging in theatres. From Peter Pan and its sneak peek When Wendy Grew up: An Afterthought, The Admirable Crichton, What every Woman Knows, and Mary Rose. The plays are formed as friendly guides to the overall experience of theatricality for professonals and amateurs or in another case for critics and theatregoers, and readers and each play involves a mystery in deciding a clear cut definition of its genre.
First of all, the language is highly objective although there are direct references to subjectivity of the text or in other words the play script. That permanent objectivity of the texuality of the play emphasises that it is meant to be performed in order to delve deeper into the work. However, there are descriptive commentaries written in italics about the stage productions and the performance of the characters and their inner feelings and at the beginning of each act there is another overview of the events and the overall circumstances of the plot in a brief way which seems as an add-on. All in all that does not impact on the experience of reading, but does provide a firsthand guide to experience the play.
Another notable aspect of the plays is the ambiguous nature of their generic forms. Firstly, Peter Pan is of course a fantasy or a fantasy to realist play since it involves a comparison between imagination and realism of its events, but the tonal status of the play whether it is tragic or comic is questionable. Also, Mary Rose, which shares the qualities of fantasy with Peter Pan, but with a sense of ghost genre, is hardly decided as a comedy or a tragedy. The Admirable Crichton and What every Woman Knows are both political and social realistic satires, but mostly, they are comedies although the theme of abominable reality of truth sheds light on the tragedy of both plays.
Peter Pan and When Wendy Grew up: Afterthought 4/5 & 4/5
The Admirable Crichton 4/5
What every Woman Knows 2/5
Mary Rose 3/5
Star for the plot, star for the themes, star for the narration, star for characters, but all lack the literary language. (Peter Pan and its sneak peek, and the Admirable Crichton).
Mary Rose could have been competitive with Peter Pan, but the length and the unresolved mystery of the play and the lack of scenes of Mary Rose and what had happened to her made her incomplete not even with the sentimental ending.
What every Woman Knows is simply boring and unworthy of reading to be honest. 2/5
First of all, the language is highly objective although there are direct references to subjectivity of the text or in other words the play script. That permanent objectivity of the texuality of the play emphasises that it is meant to be performed in order to delve deeper into the work. However, there are descriptive commentaries written in italics about the stage productions and the performance of the characters and their inner feelings and at the beginning of each act there is another overview of the events and the overall circumstances of the plot in a brief way which seems as an add-on. All in all that does not impact on the experience of reading, but does provide a firsthand guide to experience the play.
Another notable aspect of the plays is the ambiguous nature of their generic forms. Firstly, Peter Pan is of course a fantasy or a fantasy to realist play since it involves a comparison between imagination and realism of its events, but the tonal status of the play whether it is tragic or comic is questionable. Also, Mary Rose, which shares the qualities of fantasy with Peter Pan, but with a sense of ghost genre, is hardly decided as a comedy or a tragedy. The Admirable Crichton and What every Woman Knows are both political and social realistic satires, but mostly, they are comedies although the theme of abominable reality of truth sheds light on the tragedy of both plays.
Peter Pan and When Wendy Grew up: Afterthought 4/5 & 4/5
The Admirable Crichton 4/5
What every Woman Knows 2/5
Mary Rose 3/5
Star for the plot, star for the themes, star for the narration, star for characters, but all lack the literary language. (Peter Pan and its sneak peek, and the Admirable Crichton).
Mary Rose could have been competitive with Peter Pan, but the length and the unresolved mystery of the play and the lack of scenes of Mary Rose and what had happened to her made her incomplete not even with the sentimental ending.
What every Woman Knows is simply boring and unworthy of reading to be honest. 2/5
May 18, 2017
This book has been entered into some databases under the titles of the plays rather than the title of the book. If you are looking for it try searching under “The Admirable Crichton”.
Peter Pan is an amazing read. Act 1 is a masterpiece that can happily hold its head up in any company. What surprised me is that Peter Pan is dead. You'll notice that he is dressed in autumn leaves and cobwebs. So when he leaves his shadow behind, the shadow of death is in the nursery. When Wendy tries to touch him he says she must not, but cannot explain why. This is a reference to The Gospel of John 20:17 where the resurrected Jesus says “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father.” Peter doesn't know why he can't be touched because he's only a little boy. The other God Peter is is Pan. Apparently, hunters used to whip his statue when they were unsuccessful, so there seems to be some sort of power over life and death and he was once famously proclaimed to be dead. All of which would make Captain Hook the devil… if indeed he and Peter are different people. Bear all this in mind and everything else in the play will follow, but like all great pieces of writing other interpretations are available. A previous owner of my copy left me his annotations. Most made perfect sense, but there were several apparently quite serious references to anuses that I could make nothing of.
I only came for the main show but stayed for the entire performance. The other three plays are evidence of a clever man at the top of his game and in total control of his craft. Flawless in construction with charming characters and all very funny. But each of them has a darker edge. Crichton and What Every Woman Knows will challenge you to consider your opinions of class and gender respectively. Mary Rose is frankly chilling. All the plays have certain idiosyncrasies of vision: obsessions with islands and the reversal of roles, for example, that make them very individual productions.
Peter Pan is an amazing read. Act 1 is a masterpiece that can happily hold its head up in any company. What surprised me is that Peter Pan is dead. You'll notice that he is dressed in autumn leaves and cobwebs. So when he leaves his shadow behind, the shadow of death is in the nursery. When Wendy tries to touch him he says she must not, but cannot explain why. This is a reference to The Gospel of John 20:17 where the resurrected Jesus says “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father.” Peter doesn't know why he can't be touched because he's only a little boy. The other God Peter is is Pan. Apparently, hunters used to whip his statue when they were unsuccessful, so there seems to be some sort of power over life and death and he was once famously proclaimed to be dead. All of which would make Captain Hook the devil… if indeed he and Peter are different people. Bear all this in mind and everything else in the play will follow, but like all great pieces of writing other interpretations are available. A previous owner of my copy left me his annotations. Most made perfect sense, but there were several apparently quite serious references to anuses that I could make nothing of.
I only came for the main show but stayed for the entire performance. The other three plays are evidence of a clever man at the top of his game and in total control of his craft. Flawless in construction with charming characters and all very funny. But each of them has a darker edge. Crichton and What Every Woman Knows will challenge you to consider your opinions of class and gender respectively. Mary Rose is frankly chilling. All the plays have certain idiosyncrasies of vision: obsessions with islands and the reversal of roles, for example, that make them very individual productions.
September 18, 2018
I only read Peter Pan for university but I really liked it. Quick-paced, funny and somewhat tragic. The first play I've read and enjoyed (yes, this is a slight jab at Cursed Child and Othello, both of which I hated)
Also, a shutout to the insult 'cowardly custard' which I'm going to use because lol.
Also, a shutout to the insult 'cowardly custard' which I'm going to use because lol.
December 12, 2022
I was quite surprised at how much I disliked the character of Peter Pan - he was really dislikeable and controlling. The gender roles were really annoying as well - Poor child Wendy mothering 9 boys!
December 23, 2017
Reading confined to ‘Peter Pan’, for OU Children’s Literature module.
February 22, 2019
A play meant to be read more than watched. It's ok, but i probably wont revisit it.
January 20, 2021
Will I ever like Peter Pan? Probably not. Will I keep trying? Jep.
February 23, 2021
Only read Peter Pan (but also with so many editions of this story it’s hard to tell which are actually the 1920s play or the novel of another telling, so listing the full book).
November 15, 2022
really strangely written but so nostalgic
Read
October 2, 2023read for Scottish lit class!
April 15, 2024
exactly like the movie #firstcrush.
aka: they slayed the movie
aka: they slayed the movie
November 22, 2022
Only read the Peter Pan and the afterthought chapters.
July 25, 2022
This took me forever to finish (about six months). I have come to a conclusion: J.M. Barrie is such a boring writer!
I read years ago Peter Pan, the novel, and found it boring. I have always loved Peter Pan-movies and as a concept, but I didn't really enjoy the novel. Then I thought maybe I would enjoy it more as the original play. A version without boring descriptions and with a good pace... Turns out Barrie had edited his plays a lot and the length and details in the stage directions were insane. A lot wasn't even things that belonged in a stage direction. And once again the pace felt off and the descriptions nearly killed me.
The other three plays was just as boring and nothing special about them what so ever. A shame since two of them had nice equality-discussions about class and gender, but the executions just drained them.
I read years ago Peter Pan, the novel, and found it boring. I have always loved Peter Pan-movies and as a concept, but I didn't really enjoy the novel. Then I thought maybe I would enjoy it more as the original play. A version without boring descriptions and with a good pace... Turns out Barrie had edited his plays a lot and the length and details in the stage directions were insane. A lot wasn't even things that belonged in a stage direction. And once again the pace felt off and the descriptions nearly killed me.
The other three plays was just as boring and nothing special about them what so ever. A shame since two of them had nice equality-discussions about class and gender, but the executions just drained them.
November 7, 2008
I think it was watching Finding Neverland that inspired me to read the original play Peter Pan. If you've never bothered to read it, or have only read the novel, I highly recommend it. The stage directions and notes are the best parts, and make for a highly entertaining read. Between the lines and underneath all the silliness, there is a great deal of wit and insight.
(I also read What Every Woman Knows, and felt a bit disappointed at the lack of depth and sensitivity in comparison to Peter Pan.)
(I also read What Every Woman Knows, and felt a bit disappointed at the lack of depth and sensitivity in comparison to Peter Pan.)
October 20, 2007
I bought this book because I wanted to read the Peter Pan story. I didn't realize that Peter Pan was originally a play. I thought that the play was an adaption of what had been original prose. All and all it was an alright book but I am not too fond of reading plays.
The characters, especially Tinker Bell are nothing like the Disney version of the story. Personally, I think the Disney version is better.
The characters, especially Tinker Bell are nothing like the Disney version of the story. Personally, I think the Disney version is better.
December 13, 2018
I'm in the middle of writing an essay about this and I'm really starting to realize just how well-written and structured this book is! Like I've always liked it, but HONEY. The Disney version does not do this absolutely hilarious and honestly pretty dark book justice. Although upon research I'm starting to think J. M. Barrie might not have been the g r e a t e s t person, this play really is that good. Bumped up from 4 to 5 stars!
September 12, 2009
The play "Peter Pan" tells a great story and has interesting characters. A great amount of fun can be had with a crocodile roaming about and pirates having sword fights etc. The only problem is that this play is considered to be geared towards children and it long (about 3 hours). Children enjoy the high action parts but it is a long haul to see the whole, uncut play.
May 28, 2013
I only read "Peter Pan" and "When Wendy Grew Up" and...holy crap, the stage direction. The STAGE DIRECTION! How did the theatre people work with these scripts? How did the actors? These read like they should have been straight-up novels, not plays. I mean, the stage directions read like bits taken from a novel. Those poor production designers.
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