PETER PAN: A PANTOMIME ADVENTURE

Greenwich Theatre

★★★★

“The whole cast is slick, confident and bursting with energy, driving this gloriously bonkers show with gusto”

Looking for a panto to keep you laughing all the way to Christmas? Look no further than Greenwich Theatre’s latest instalment, ‘Peter Pan: A New Pantomime Adventure’. This riotous show is packed with slapstick, silliness and sparkle for all the family. It’s cheeky, cheerful and utterly charming – catch it while you can!

It’s 2025 and Wendy’s great granddaughter (also called Wendy) is stuck working at a car wash. Luckily her necklace doubles as a distress beacon, summoning Peter Pan who whisks her off to Neverland. Meanwhile, Captain Hook frets about his ‘old’ age, and Tinker Bell – jealous of Wendy’s arrival – tips Hook off about a fountain of youth. Cue pirates, puppets, misadventures, double entendres and more fish puns than you can shake a hook at.

Award winning writer Anthony Spargo returns with his fourth Greenwich panto, a gloriously bonkers spin on J. M. Barrie’s classic tale. Modern twists abound, from a Gen Z Tinker Bell to a flying Vauxhall Astra. The script is crammed with jokes of every flavour: puns, dad jokes and cheeky double entendres, with as many groans as belly laughs. Spargo’s fresh spin has plenty of fun for families and even more for the grown ups. I would argue not every song is necessary, but the sheer comic energy keeps the show fizzing.

Directed by James Haddrell, Greenwich Theatre’s Artistic Director, expect the traditional campy villains and strait-laced goodies. Inventive video transitions, slick turntable scene changes and flying antics keep things lively, while Tink’s Heelys and a pile of puppets add extra fun. There are some genius moments, such as the age-defying fountain of youth, and the ‘Indiana Jones’ style boulders bouncing over the audience. The pace zips along until the shout outs and sing off at the end, leaving the finale a touch flat. Still, it’s a cracking good time.

The music is directed by ‘Uncle’ Steve Markwick on piano, with Gordon Parrish on guitar and Chris Wyles on drums. The trio create a full, lively sound. A panto isn’t complete without song parodies, though not every number feels necessary – the over used ‘Anything You Can Do’ duet springs to mind, though this does allow Smee (Louise Cielecki) to show off her pipes. Some songs rely on rather simple word swaps, though the fish pun medley is a genuine hoot.

Set and costume design by Emily Bestow is a glitter laden gift with impressively detailed hand-painted sets. Costumes embrace DIY panto charm, with Hook’s enormous hat stealing the show. Aidan Good’s sound design could do with more balance, as the band overpowers the singers and Tinker Bell’s (Olivia Williamson) vocals struggle to cut through. That said, the varied use of sound effects and incidental music adds real sparkle. Henry Slater’s lighting design becomes increasingly playful with moments of real theatrical flair. Nancy Kettle’s choreography is suitably playful, keeping the action lively. Hannah Schlenker’s video design is slick and inventive, with some standout moments including the ‘Mario Kart’ style sequence. Puppets by Pavlov’s Puppets and Naomi Oppenheim are a delight.

Spargo’s Hook is the star of the show, brimming with all the charisma, swagger and camp flair befitting a panto villain. Spargo commands the stage with impeccable timing and sharp asides and is a joy to watch. Samuel Bailey’s Peter Pan brings infectious energy and a strikingly powerful voice. Nikita Johal’s Wendy matches this with a perky presence and equally impressive vocals. Alex Marshall’s mermaid is a surprise highlight, oozing unexpected charm. The whole cast is slick, confident and bursting with energy, driving this gloriously bonkers show with gusto.

If you’re pining for a pun-packed panto, ‘Peter Pan: A New Pantomime Adventure’ is the one for you. Brimming with laughs for children and adults alike, it’s a glittering treat worth catching while you can.

PETER PAN: A PANTOMIME ADVENTURE

Greenwich Theatre

Reviewed on 5th December 2025

by Hannah Bothelton

Photography by Greenwich Theatre

Shows most recently reviewed at this venue:

THE LUMINOUS | ★★★ | November 2024

THE RIVER | ★★★ | October 2024

VINCENT RIVER | ★★★ | June 2023

AN INTERVENTION | ★★★½ | July 2022

PETER PAN

THE LUMINOUS at Greenwich Theatre

★★★

“the actors play determined everywomen with plenty of brio, empathy and skill.”

What do all these have in common? The matchgirls’ strike of 1888, modern hospital regeneration, the Greenham Common peace camps of the 1980s, a sleepless half-twin, and a lady in a brown bonnet who is likely a ghost.

Although the solution is never properly clear, three women – Mighty, Mags and Alice – spend 90 minutes wrestling with the pieces in an attempt to create a cohesive picture.

A couple of bottles of red help.

This is a book club, comprising NHS workers kicking back. They’re studying The Luminous. Depending on your point of view, it’s either a lurid potboiler or a brutal examination of oppression in the 1880s. The title springs from the glowing bones of match workers who are slowly poisoned by deadly phosphorus.

Over the course of an evening, the increasingly drunken trio tackle – well, let’s hand over to the trigger warning on the publicity for a rundown: “Sensitive themes of violence against women (physical and sexual), abortion, illness and grief. It contains references to childbirth, self-immolation and nuclear warfare. It also contains strong language, ableist and misogynistic language and an abstract depiction of an autopsy.”

Self-immolation and nuclear warfare?

That’s some night.

The stage is spare, the scene is set. Catherine Dyson, also the writer, Cassie Friend and Rebecca Loukes ably play the three women who leap from this period to that, from drunken dancing to rueful recollections of family rifts. One minute we’re in hospital scrubs, the next we’re in the downbeat drapes of Victorian East London with Jack the Ripper loitering somewhere in the fog.

It’s a lot. But a theme emerges. Everywhere we turn, the women have it rough and every man we meet is a moustache-twiddling villain bent on copping a feel and worse.

The production tries hard to make these time jumps seamless, keeping the three on stage and offering up slick costume and tonal changes. There’s song, dance, a slide show and that autopsy. Under director Sabina Netherclift’s direction the pace is necessarily steady, so we’re always with the ever-shifting action, but there are so many ideas scrabbling for attention that some get left behind, never achieving a satisfying resolution.

Of all the conjoined sketches, the production feels most comfortable in the Penny Gaff, a raucous music hall where a lascivious ringmaster sells his girls on tales of West End glory while re-enacting bloody murder tableaux.

The parade of miseries the women endure – assault, oppression, exploitation, rape, neglect, mangled abortion – are somewhat formulaic (each of the women has their own set piece trauma) but the actors play determined everywomen with plenty of brio, empathy and skill. They manage, with vino in full flow, to create a sense of community and sisterhood.

This collage has an earnest underpinning and a brisk thematic and physical momentum so by the conclusion there’s been enough goodwill accrued to provide a galvanising edge, with generations of women calling on the next to pick up the baton.

Elsewhere, the week’s most telling cultural moment was actor Saoirse Ronan informing her stunned-to-silence male couch mates on The Graham Norton Show that using a phone as a weapon is something “girls have to think about all the time”.

So, there’s sufficient truth in the drama and urgency in the message to make The Luminous an admirable and diverting polemic.

Tag Archives: Greenwich Theatre

PETER PAN: A PANTOMIME ADVENTURE

★★★★

Greenwich Theatre

PETER PAN: A PANTOMIME ADVENTURE

Greenwich Theatre

★★★★

“The whole cast is slick, confident and bursting with energy, driving this gloriously bonkers show with gusto”