For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday

for a previous production "An intriguing if uneven new work from Sarah Ruhl. Tenderly directed by her longtime collaborator Les Waters, ‘Peter’ is a surreal 90-minute reverie that’s wistful, beautiful and perplexing, not unlike life…And yet ‘Peter’ never quite takes wing theatrically. To be sure, it’s only because Ruhl is such a genius that ‘Pan’ disappoints…All of the actors deliver nuanced turns, but Chalfant dusts this production with fairy magic…For all its fanciful charms, however, the piece remains confounding." Full Review

for a previous production “‘For Peter Pan’ never lives up to its potential, and the journey Ruhl charts from the hospital room to Neverland is more of a slog...Throughout all this, Ruhl injects enough stage magic into the proceedings to establish the possibility for one of her wondrous transitions out of the banal and into the otherworldly…Yet Ruhl splices in those tropes arbitrarily, lazily — as if the fact that the metaphor is obvious means she needn’t give it shape.” Full Review

for a previous production “The magic in this play is all in that fantastical morphing, which shimmers in its quiet way, infusing the play with lightness and warmth. The catch is you have to wait until the last third to get there…Characters mouth platitudes so implausibly hackneyed that the audience is left wondering whether they were delivered ironically…The third scene is higher energy…Tender and poignant at times, Ruhl gently probes our take on the illusions of growing up, acting, and gender.” Full Review

for a previous production “In what feels like the strongest of the play's three scenes, the siblings ruminate on death, the afterlife, and what it means to really be an adult...The remaining two scenes are less impressive…Chalfant leads a strong cast as a sympathetic and engaging Ann…Les Waters directs with a sure eye for both the comedy and drama in the script, but even so ‘For Peter Pan’ is a bit too specifically autobiographical for its own good. It feels less like a play for a general audience than a home video.” Full Review

for a previous production “Chalfant is a deeply empathetic actor who commands the stage…Though not a revolutionary idea, the execution and admittedly hokey stage magic make the final moments of the play especially moving, endearing, and even transcendent…It's just quirky, original, and redemptive enough to stand out among contemporary theater, and while the issues it deals with are heavy, it arrives at a lightness that some might say is too literal, but I'll just say left a lasting smile on my face.” Full Review

for a previous production “All this sounds rather depressing but, being a Sarah Ruhl play, is delivered with humor, compassion and cleverness…An enjoyable and engrossing 90 minutes of theater, moving the audience swiftly along its trajectory of grief until it, quite literally, soars through the air…Waters works his theatrical magic again here, bringing out not only the best in the play, but in his excellent ensemble of actors.” Full Review

for a previous production “Oh Ms. Ruhl…Why in perhaps your most personal play to date, do you exchange intellect for cliché and fantasy for silliness?...We can’t help but feel like we we’ve been watching a panto holiday extravaganza rather than one of Ruhl’s deeply meaningful mythic meditations…It’s as though this childishness got the better of Ruhl here, dumbing down potentially intriguing discussion into obvious sound bites and belaboring the fantastical into mere antics.” Full Review

for a previous production “There is an intrinsic lyricism to Ruhl’s ideas as well as her language in this work…Chalfant as Ann and Peter Pan utterly compels and charms…The rest of the cast aptly provides respectable performances…Waters' direction also holds very tender moments…Waters – who also has a history of wily exploits that sometimes excel – fulfills his reputation here by including a small marching band. Instead of adding illumination, however, the move disrupts the story and mood." Full Review

for a previous production “In her script, Ruhl expertly weaves heavy topics with elements of childhood whimsy to touching effect…Some elements, however, were cumbersome...Waters' knack for the darkly fanciful elevates Ruhl’s script. Add in the tenderly performed roles of the siblings (Scott Jaeck, Keith Reddin, David Chandler and Lisa Emery — all of whom were standouts), and 'For Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday' will be a Humana play with a reach far past Actors Theatre." Full Review