In these progressive times, concerns over old productions — like the 100-year-old classic Peter Pan — are subject to revision. With a live production on NBC this Thursday, Dec. 4, starring Christopher Walken, Music Theatre International is considering updating the play's undertones of post-colonialism to a more politically correct version.
Playwright and choreographer Larissa FastHorse, among others consulted by and including Children's Theatre, felt it fit to produce a counterpoint to the famous "Lost Boys," which some feel is a crude assimilation of early Native American anxieties. Thus, she created a new gang of powerful and diverse girls, per (Minneapolis) Star Tribune, now known as "The Pounce."
Interesting, indeed.
But the idea has only become a concept for Music Theatre International, a licensing company that controls the performance rights to Peter Pan. And this concept, thus, hasn't been fully adopted just yet.
"What's appalling about Peter Pan is that everyone else in the play speaks perfect English," says FastHorse, "but when it comes to the Native Americans, the tribe, it's the 'ugga wugga' song, which is made-up gibberish in the third person."
"The play puts Native Americans in that realm of the fantastical, as if we were extinct. But we're here, alive and creative, not better or worse than anyone else," she continued.
Perhaps Homi Babha could weigh in for us.
For FastHorse and the Children's Theatre, which plans on commissioning the updated version next spring, the attempt to become more P.C. is definitely in step with a more progressive culture.
Until then, here is a preview of the upcoming NBC production of Peter Pan, starring Christopher Walken:
NOTE: In an earlier version of this story Star Tribune cited that Music Theatre International considered adopting the "The Pounce" as a new standard in place of "The Lost Boys." This has been confirmed to be false and has been removed.
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