Review: PETER PAN'S LABYRINTH, The Vaults

Veteran comedy performers Sleeping Trees deliver yet another sensational seasonal mash-up with Peter Pan's Labyrinth, weaving fantasy, comedy, cabaret and chaos together in typically unpredictable style.

The show draws together the unlikely trio of Peter Pan, Pan's Labyrinth, and the 1986 David Bowie vehicle Labyrinth to hilarious effect as part of The Vaults' autumn season.

Picking up where the fairy tale usually ends, Pan is banished from Neverland and condemned to a mortal life away from Tinkerbell and the Lost Boys. Twenty years on and an overweight and unhappy Peter finds himself drawn back to Neverland for the wedding of Tinkerbell and one-time rival Captain Hook.

To get there, he must navigate David Bowie's Labyrinth and the array of characters drawn from the source material, such as Hands For Eyes and Peter Pan's Shadow, which are haphazardly and hilariously brought to life by the quartet of actors.

This reimagining of the fairy tale is brimming with laughter and razor-sharp wit from the start, with the performers so comfortable that the occasional slip and stumble is incorporated without hesitation into the general bedlam of the show.

Still, the writers and performers embellish the show with a genuine love and appreciation of the source material, sculpting two hours of pure enjoyment in a space that has become so good at nurturing such inspired insanity. Indeed, this bizarre marriage of themes and genres feels much like that moment every child has when they enter a restaurant, collect their glass from the counter, approach the bottomless drinks selection and suddenly all manner of combinations are possible.

Tango orange and coke? Why not. Dr Pepper with 7Up? Absolutely. It's difficult to say whether any of these actually work in practice, but that's not the point. The joy comes from seeing the chaotic, unhinged experiment in action, and that is exactly what we have on stage here.

Created, written and performed by Sleeping Trees trio Joshua George Smith, James Dunnell-Smith and John Woodburn alongside drag act extraordinaire Dan Wye and produced by long-time collaborator Alice Carter.

This is another success for the veteran group who have been working together since 2010 with 15 shows in that time including eight Edinburgh shows and six Christmas shows - notably previous mash-ups Goldilocks and the Three Musketeers and Scrooge and the Seven Dwarves

The addition of Wye, known by his stage name Seayonce, in the role of Bowie, sees the trio add a fourth performer for the first time and it pays off handsomely thanks to Wye's uncanny imitation and glorious vocal performance - as well as an anarchic turn as Peter Pan's Shadow.

This production, hosted at The Vaults' space on Launcelot Street, forms one of three shows being shown this winter at a venue which, for so long, has been a safe haven and nurturing ground for the avant-garde of London's theatre scene.

This year the venue's social conscience is on full display, providing assistance in the current cost-of-living crisis thanks to the innovative Pay-What-You-Can scheme, meaning that every Wednesday and Sunday tickets are priced from £3 and bookable in advance.

Peter Pan's Labyrinth will run at The Vaults until January 7 2023.

Photo Credit: The Vaults

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