The Lost Boy, presented by the Langham Court Theatre under the direction of Merry Hallsor, is based on the true story of James M. Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan. After the childhood death of his brother, Davey, Barrie is haunted with guilt and insecurity only exasperated by an unloving mother and wife. While the lost boy is intended to represent Barrie’s brother, it’s clear that the true lost boy is Barrie himself.
The play follows Barrie’s life, as well as the story of Peter Pan, which is enacted on a secondary stage. This dual-story format is the weakest part of the performance, since it waffles drastically between an adult drama and a children’s cartoon. The latter feels divorced from the real storyline. This steals opportunities to dive deeper into Barrie’s story and raise the stakes with constantly rising tension and a satisfying payoff. Instead, the audience is torn away repeatedly to listen to a fairy tale, which, although it illustrates clear conceptual parallels, is still too tonally inconsistent to work well.
Most of the standout moments in the show revolve around Barrie (played by Nolan McConnell-Fidyk) and his mother (played by Hilary F. Allan). Their relationship is ugly and believable, and viewers can really empathize with the torment of the man whose mother forsook him at six years old, telling him, “the wrong son died today.” Similarly, we can see painfully human character in the bitter old woman who belies resentful flashes of affection for the son she is doing her very best to hate. Amelia Lambert also delivers a fine performance as Maureen O’Rourke, a peasant woman stuck in an unfaithful marriage, who, for a short while, finds love in another anguished soul. Colin Wilson plays Peter Pan (as well as Davey Barrie) and Corina Filipovic plays Tinker Bell, and their performances, although clearly showing a lack of experience, also reveal dedicated child actors who have certainly devoted themselves to their roles.
Unfortunately, the show’s stage direction squanders the actors’ talent and enthusiasm. The set is minimalistic, using sparse props on a wide-open stage, which makes the job more difficult for Hallsor, who has to do more with less. Much of the time, the actors are static, never moving from the one spot they have been assigned during that scene. Had the direction made more dynamic use of the entire stage, using character movement to underscore emotion and stir up the dead air, the production would have been more interesting and engaging.
The Lost Boy is not quite the solemn, intense character drama I expected it to be, with inconsistent tone and lacklustre direction, but it shines brightly with performances that, despite being distinctly amateur, are passionate and joyful in their sincerity.
The Lost Boy
Various times, until Sunday, December 3
Various prices (student tickets $19), Langham Court Theatre
langhamtheatre.ca