OnStage: Flights of fancy alight in Neverland

How about a blind date in Neverland?

When a new stage adaptation of "Peter Pan" premieres tonight in Minneapolis, it will be the fruition of an international match dreamed up in the Twin Cities by Children's Theatre head Peter Brosius.

A few years ago, Brosius had a delicious idea: Why not introduce two theater artists whom he admired on the international festival circuit to each other and then, perhaps, get them together on a project?

Brosius arranged a meeting in Paris with Italian puppetmaker Fabrizio Montecchi and Scottish director Douglas Irvine. It was a match. Since then, in other meetings and theater workshops, the two have gotten to know each other.

The result of their efforts will be evident when "Peter Pan" opens tonight.

"I had visited Fabrizio in his studio in Piacenza [northern Italy], and I had known about the work of Dougie for a long time," said Brosius. "These are two of Europe's leading creative artists doing work here in the Twin Cities. They have taken a story that everyone knows, or thinks they know, and given it a gorgeous, fantastic treatment that makes it new again."

Doing a classic

The stories of Peter Pan are classic and often told, especially on film. They sprang from J.M. Barrie, the Scottish novelist and playwright who first wrote of Peter Pan as part of a young-adult novel a century ago. He then wrote it as a play and later, at the prodding of his publisher, as a novel again.

In the works, the boy who never grows up goes about his little island of Neverland having adventures with Captain Hook, his friend Wendy and the Lost Boys gang.

To adapt the work, Irvine, head of Glasgow-based Visible Fictions company, used the novel as his primary source. He developed the characters around the magic of the world they live in. He also found that the relationship between Peter and Wendy was a central element of the story that exists in many realms.

"These characters inhabit an ever-changing world with pirates and fairies," Irvine said. "In a way, it's all fantastical and phantasmagoric."

Shadows real and imagined play a big role in the novel, perhaps not as big as they do in Irvine's production. In both works, Peter Pan loses his shadow, which is reattached by Wendy.

Irvine credited Montecchi's shadow puppetry with enlarging the universe of the play and giving it fluidity, as well.

'New eyes'

Montecchi, of Teatro Gioca Vita company, has collaborated internationally with leading opera companies and has worked at Children's Theatre before, where he staged "Cat's Journey" two years ago. Their work on "Pan" has meant all kinds of exchanges -- of aesthetics and styles and even languages, as these parties must communicate between three countries on two continents.

Montecchi said that he has been surprised by the process of working on the play.

"[Doug] makes me see my work in new ways," said Montecchi. "I am a director, but I learn new things."

Irvine said that he has been having a faith experience -- courtesy of Montecchi.

"To be honest, I did not know how it would work out, but I went into it with full trust," he said before a recent rehearsal. "But we're finding our way and keeping our fingers crossed."

"Pan" will have an initial fall run in Minneapolis, which is mostly sold out, then return in early December as the holiday offering at the Children's Theatre. Under the aegis of Visible Fictions, it will tour England next year.

The production's international scope, said Brosius, "creates exchanges of aesthetics and styles that last. And it showcases the incredible vitality and vibrancy of the work that we're doing for children here. That's all very, very exciting."

Rohan Preston • 612-673-4390