There’s something inherently wonderful about J.M. Barrie having written “Peter Pan” for four fatherless children.
His message was not, as it’s often mistaken to be, that they shouldn’t grow up. It’s that they shouldn’t grow up too fast. They should hold on to their whimsy and imagination for as long as possible. Hold the seriousness of adulthood at bay. That will come in due time.
But Barrie was inspired to write “Peter Pan” by a brother who died at 13. To be forever trapped in childhood is to be dead, to never be able to experience adulthood. The death left Barrie in a similar limbo. That’s why he was able to write “Peter Pan” at all — but his gift to the world was his own personal tragedy.
Watching Paula Vogel’s embryonic 1984 domestic comedy “And Baby Makes Seven” made me want to go rent “Finding Neverland.” Vogel’s play could be considered a bizarre descendent of “Peter Pan,” but if so, it’s a Lost Girl.
Vogel is the wonderfully twisted mistress of modern domestic weirdness. In her story, which marks the move of Theatre 13 to its new home in Boulder’s Dairy Center for the Arts, Ruth and Anna are lesbians awaiting the birth of a child. Anna has been inseminated by gay college pal Peter, a full participant in the upcoming child-rearing.
We’ve all said this at one time or another: “So-and-so should not be allowed to procreate.” These are three of those people — and it has nothing to do with their sexual orientation. If only this were a play about the merits of same-sex couples raising children.
It’s because these pals have been indulging in a bizarre kind of role-playing ritual since college. They have created Henri, Cecil and a dog-boy called Orphan (inspired in part by “The Red Balloon”). At any given moment, one will suddenly zombify into a character, and the others just play along in scenes that invoke literary archetypes from Greek to Shakespeare to “Tea and Sympathy.”
But the line between fantasy and reality is blurring in this household, and with a real baby on the way, Peter suggests it’s time to knock it off. After all, it might be confusing for Junior to grow up in a house with two imaginary siblings and a fake dog. But the wacko women will only give up the ghost(s) after all three imaginary characters get an appropriately elaborate and adventurous death scene.
Of course, severing the emotional connection these three have made with their fake kids proves difficult. No matter that a real one is on the way.
You might think that possessing such vivid and childlike imaginations would make these three the best kind of parents to raise a child. But I kept thinking, “Someone please call social services.”
“Peter Pan” this is not.
For one thing, Barrie created his fantasy to beguile existing children. These three grown-ups have been doing it for their own infantile amusement. The central issue is not whether parenthood necessitates the death of one’s inner child. It’s whether these three belong in straitjackets.
Theatre 13’s swank staging, directed by Steve Grad and Charlotte Brecht Munn, features a capable trio of fully invested actors and a sleek set by Mark Fischer. A buff Rebecca Brown Adelman is best playing out her doggie’s rabid death; Kjersti Ingela Webb has an uncanny knack for sticking out her teeth and transforming into a young boy; and Kevin Causey does the best he can to be the straight man (so to speak).
But we get to know Vogel’s fake characters far better than her real ones, so we never fully understand the latter enough to excuse their creepy charade.
When these three inevitably settle into a “normal” routine, there’s a real opportunity for Vogel to make a strong statement about the mundanity of adult life versus the excitement of childish fantasy. But her final choice is so regressive and untidy, all one can do as the lights go down is wonder — and worry about what a mess these three are likely to make of this poor child who’s not going to know Peter from Pan.
“And Baby Makes Seven”
Theatre 13 at the Dairy Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Through Feb. 10. 1 hour, 40 minutes. 7 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 4 p.m. Sundays. $12-$15 303-444-7328 or
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
KritiKaraoke: Hear an audio version of this review
George and Martha, those bickering lovebirds from “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” read from this review of Theatre13’s “And Baby Makes Seven.”
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2 more plays
When is another production of “Little Shop of Horrors” noteworthy? When it’s being staged by Boulder’s Dinner Theatre, with the estimable Joanie Brosseau-Beyette as Audrey and Brendon Dill as Seymour. The plant’s still gonna eat the world, but it’ll be fun watching it happen while we get to chow down on some of that succulent chicken cordon bleu. Call 303-449-6000 or go to bdt’s home page. . Plays through May 3. Prices start at $35.
It was “Loud” at Heritage Square last summer” and it’s “Loud” again this winter as the Music Hall remounts its runaway hit, “Too Old to Be Loud” for a limited engagement in Golden. In this installment of the venerable pop-music review, ringleader T.J. Mullin takes on Buddy Holly, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Elvis Presley, Elton John and even . . . Baby Spice. Plays through Feb. 17. 303-279-7800 or Today-Feb. 17. $25.50-$38.50.
John Moore
Weekly podcast
Running Lines with . . . Deb Persoff. John Moore talks with a star of TheatreWorks’ “Blithe Spirit” in Colorado Springs. Listen by .
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