by Anne-Louise Fortune
Wendy, my Darling, takes the premise of Peter Pan and asks ‘what if’ to weave a modern-day fairy tale of female awakening.
April Wish stars as Wendy Darling and has also written the show, having conceived the story with colleague Tammy Glover. Glover also performs as the ‘musical muse’ – or guitar player who provides instrumental accompaniment to Wendy’s story.
The premise is to ask us to imagine that not only are the Darling family from J M Barrie’s Edwardian-era tale real but that their ability to both see and fly with Peter Pan can be passed down through the generations. However, once adults, only the girls can remember their experiences, and sometimes even those memories fade.
This Wendy is the fourth generation of Darling woman, and her daughter, June, is away flying around with Peter when the action of the piece begins. Wendy does not fly anymore – the mixture of Happy Thoughts and Pixie Dust are no longer available to her. And so begins an exploration of why that is.
Wendy is fundamentally unhappy. The adventurous, exciting life promised by her childhood days spent with Peter Pan has failed to materialise. Wendy is a writer in Los Angeles, trying, and mostly failing, to sell scripts to film studios and streaming companies. Her agent, who she counts as a friend, is trying his best, but they appear to have a fundamental miscommunication about what sort of stories Wendy wants to write.
On a more personal basis, Wendy’s life is Fine. Totally fine. She has a lovely husband and a beautiful daughter, and she loves them both. But her life isn’t how she hoped, and neither is it what she wants. She wants to fly, but she also does not necessarily want to wait for Peter to make time for her. Wendy wants to fly on her own terms.
This is then all a very thinly veiled reference to the self-determination offered by the feminist movement, which has, for swathes of women of Generation X, failed to materialise – told we could have it all. It turns out we could not, often because those in positions of power would not allow us the opportunity to be our true selves. Pigeon-holing and stereotyping women is easier – even Wendy’s agent tries to do this, suggesting she should write a children’s book, even though Wendy has told him repeatedly that she has no interest in this.
The story is told not just through Wish’s performance and the accompanying music but also through multimedia, with video and audio all assisting to create a rich narrative world that is both realistic and yet ethereal.
Whilst there is a lot to like here, there are some aspects which perhaps merit a rethink to make the story arc more satisfying. It’s hard to believe that Wendy, a woman who has lived in LA for several decades, doesn’t know how to make the most of the opportunity offered by a viral TikTok moment, instead seeming to appear as if she has never been interviewed or appeared on screen before. The hysteria Wendy experiences appears to arise extremely quickly, and although this may be realistic, in a piece of theatre, more build-up and foreshadowing needs to occur.
The biggest problem is one of unfortunate timing – with the time it takes to develop a show, this is a matter which would have been outside Wish and Glover’s control – but it is difficult to escape the fact that the Barbie movie made many of the points being made here in America Ferrera’s barnstorming, and now meme’d speech, which made many of the points being raised here, but got there earlier. It’s a slightly different message and a very different method, but when both Wendy and Barbie are characters who spend or have spent, their time in a fantasy world, it is difficult to avoid the comparison.
In the end, Wendy realises that she needs to be in charge of her own life. It’s an important reminder that we need to allow ourselves happy thoughts, even if the world seems determined to suppress our hopes and dreams. Wendy, my Darling is a lovely piece of theatre worth an hour of your time, and perhaps it might remind you of your right to soar and fly.
Wendy, my Darling continues at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe until August 12th
