The Utah Review | Neverland’s magic set to arrive in downtown Salt Lake City, as Ballet West offers Utah premiere of Trey McIntyre’s Peter Pan
Puer Aeternus translates from Latin into eternal boy, a mythological description of an eternally young child-God. All children, except one, grow up. In J.M. Barrie’s timeless classic, Peter Pan’s eternal youth is preserved and in both the play and novel the author wrote, Peter teaches the Darling children to fly, thanks to sparking their imagination with an added sprinkling of fairy dust. Peter’s presence in Neverland is profound for how it ultimately changes the life of the island and the people who live there.
“Peter Pan remains an enduring story because its themes speak to humanity,” Adam Sklute, Ballet West’s artistic director, noted. “The story underscores the conflict between the innocence of childhood and the social responsibility of adulthood. Barrie seems to have understood the psychology of children in ways that were ahead of the times, and he based many aspects of the story on people and situations from his own life.”