NO FLASH IN THE ‘PAN’ : Theaterfaire Believes in the Power of Barrie’s Classic Minus the Music

I recently bought one of those Advent calendars, the kind with a perky Yuletide scene dotted by 24 doors that you’re supposed to open, one per day, from Dec. 1 to Christmas Eve.

It seemed like a harmless idea, until we started getting into the double digits, when, as they increased, the opened doors seemed to mock me. In my more paranoid moments, I could even swear they were talking about me late at night.

“Well, well,” they sneer. “The 12th already and she hasn’t mailed her cards?” Or, “Would you look at that? The 16th, and she barely started her shopping. She’ll be a wreck by Christmas.”

The thing is making me nuts, not because I feel guilty (which I do), but because it represents a barrier between us--the adults who plan, budget for and fret over the holiday festivities--and them, the kids who bask in them.

With its upcoming production of James M. Barrie’s classic “Peter Pan,” Theatrefaire for Children hopes to erase that border for a couple of hours, allowing adults and children to share a measure of fantasy without the fuss. The play, directed by Theatrefaire artistic director Blake Gould and featuring 35 area children and adults, opens Friday at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

According to Gould, “Peter Pan” has a special appeal for adults, not only because it may recall happy childhood memories, but because it contains messages that become more meaningful with age.

“There are a lot of undercurrents in this show that speak directly to adults--or former lost boys and girls as I’m calling them now--in that we’ve all lost our childhoods. There’s a lot of psychology. It won’t be heavy in this show, but it becomes clearer as you become an older child,” explained Gould, adding that he chose Barrie’s original script instead of the musical version because “it allows you to stay with some of the wonderful ideas that can be diluted by songs.”

Producing a non-musical “Peter Pan” at a time of year when other companies are serving up such cash cows as “A Christmas Carol” and “The Nutcracker” might seem risky, but Gould said that, for him, it was an easy decision.

“When I told someone we were doing ‘Peter Pan,’ they were relieved because they said it’s usually ‘What shall we see this year . . . again?’ We wanted something that would add to the holiday spirit but not be totally Christmas. What better place for that than Never Land?”

The Theatrefaire staging will be faithful to Barrie’s original story, said Gould, and will include scenes and characters not seen in the musical or animated versions. The “Peter Pan” story originated as a play, premiering in 1904 at London’s Prince Edward Theatre, and was released as a novel seven years later, one of only two children’s books ever published by Barrie, a prolific playwright and novelist, Gould said.

Gould said that although there are few pictures of “Peter Pan’s” early productions available, he and his designers have had little trouble seeing the show through Barrie’s eyes. “His stage directions (in the script) go on forever, sometimes 2 1/2 pages,” Gould explained.

“There were so many things he wanted to explain about the characters and their thoughts, wonderful passages about how Peter would talk to the stars and how they would be his lookout. We’ve tried to find ways to introduce at least some of these ideas,” he said.

Gould said one of his primary goals was to infuse the show with a child’s sense of adventure and playfulness. To this end, longtime Theatrefaire set designer Wally Huntoon has contributed, among other things, a 20-foot, three-dimensional pirate ship that will “sail” back and forth across the stage, a nine-foot radio-controlled crocodile, and a Never Land where all four seasons occur at once. The venerable Flying by Foy company of Las Vegas has been brought in to coordinate the show’s on-stage flights.

Fight director Christopher Villa has tried to bring that sense of whimsy into the clashes between the lost boys, the Indians and pirates, as well as Peter and Captain Hook. While the adults use more realistic-looking weapons, the lost boys wail away with beanbags, pillows and what Villa calls, “little whackers,” a grab bag of foam clubs, branches and twigs.

The purpose, said Villa, is to stage the conflicts from the boys’ point of view, conflicts where, despite overwhelming odds, children always triumphed over adults.

“We wanted to make sure all the fights look like the boys had dreamed them up, the way I always wanted to fight when I was a boy,” Villa explained. “It’s pure fantasy.”