by J. M. Barrie
Floreat Etona.
We see the crocodile crawling ashore. He shakes out of his mouth the wooden arm with hook of the late captain. He leaves it lying on the shore and plods away, like one who has lived his great hour and can afford to take the rest of his life more leisurely.
Then we see the deck again with the boys (and Wendy) all more or less wounded and bandaged, gazing in awe at Peter who is off his head with pride in himself and is strutting up and down. He strikes Napoleonic attitudes, but is not dressed as Napoleon.
Next we see Wendy, Nibs, and Tootles in the hold opening a seaman’s chest and bringing clothes out of it, pirate’s clothing. Evidently the boys want to wear these clothes. We see Wendy cutting a pair of pirate trousers with scissors so as to shorten the legs for a boy. Then we see Slightly in the cook’s pantry of the ship gloating over its attractive contents. He finds a big bottle marked “Plums” and begins to eat them greedily. Then we see Michael in the hold trying to shave himself with pirate razor. His face is lathered. Then Slightly again now in stomach pains, but still eating plums. Wendy finds him and destroys plums. Then she finds Michael, and cleans the lather off his face.
Then we see all the boys on deck (except Peter) in pirate clothes, all looking like pirates and liking it. The clothes don’t fit them but have been roughly made smaller. Then Peter emerges from the captain’s cabin and swaggers about. He is dressed in a suit of Hook’s cut down but still too big, and is looking as like him as he can. He is drunk with cockiness, and all fear him. He holds a hook in his right hand, and threatens Slightly with it. He is smoking Hook’s double cigar. He gives an order. Very smartly the boys obey his order, flying to the rigging instead of climbing. Up to now no sails have been set. All sail is set by them now, and the great pirate ship veering round as the sails belly out, with Peter at the wheel, should make a stirring picture.
Poor Peter is now, however, feeling squeamish as the result of his smoking. He puts away the cigars, and clutches his head. The other boys to his annoyance gather round him to see what will be the unheroic result of this misadventure. Wendy (who is still in the clothes in which she was brought aboard) appears and sees to what catastrophe the incident is tending. She orders the other boys away and then conducts Peter to the side of the vessel, over which he leans and is sick in privacy though we just guess it. Wendy stands near him solicitously but not too near, for she knows that there are moments in heroes’ lives when they would prefer to be alone. He is now a little relieved, and she tries to induce him to go to Hook’s cabin, of which he has become the tenant, but he won’t desert the wheel and he nobly ties himself to it. She gazes at him admiringly and goes away. If possible the ship should be rocking as if in a heavy sea. It is now moving in a narrow channel between rocks that separate it from the open sea. The night is now dark.
Next we see Slightly again in the pantry. He is now eating sardines greedily, though obviously in great pain. Then the deck scene again with Peter at wheel. Wendy appears with something she is concealing in a cloth behind her back. She doesn’t want Peter to see it. We wonder what it is. She sneaks into Peter’s cabin with it and now we see it. It is a hot-water bottle, which she places carefully in the bed. She notices in cabin, as we do, a touching sight, viz. on the floor a little pile of the clothes Peter has taken off and left lying there after the manner of children. She folds them carefully on a chair and goes out. When she has gone, Tink pops out of a jug and hops about.
Then we have a picture of the fo’c’s’le in which a number of pirates have evidently slept, for here are their bunks. It is a dark, evil-looking place, with horrible pirate weapons still hanging on its discoloured walls. In the bunks lie all the boys except Peter, all asleep though Slightly is having bad dreams, as the result of his greediness. Wendy is sitting on a stool by an oil-stove, darning away as usual. The new conditions don’t bother her; she is still a mother.
Alternated with this picture we have one again of Peter still lashed to the wheel, spray splashing on him, and the ship heading out of the channel into an open and angry sea. It can be black-dark if this will help the rolling of the vessel; but if it rolls above on deck we must get a similar effect in the fo’c’s’le.
After many days the gay and innocent and heartless things reach home.
We have a picture of Westminster and the Thames again with a suggestion of the pirate ship there.
Then we see the outside of the Darlings’ home once more. Nana goes in at the door carrying a basket in her mouth. Then inside the house and we see Mrs Darling sitting sadly at the open nursery window. She stretches her arms out to window. Nana comes and sits sympathetically with her. She shares Mrs Darling’s handkerchief with her, but it should be touching, not comic. Mr Darling is sitting dejectedly by the nursery fire. He takes from the mantelpiece a portrait. We see in a close-up that it is of the three children. He is sorrowful. Evidently he is cold, he shivers, and rises and closes the window, but Mrs Darling opens it at once indicating sweetly that it must always be kept open for them. She goes sadly into another room.
Nana is going miserably to her kennel in the nursery, but Mr Darling indicates to her that his armchair is the proper place for her, and that, as a punishment he, himself, must go into the kennel. Nana curls up on chair. Mr Darling goes into the kennel to sleep.
Then we see Mrs Darling in the other room, which is the day nursery. There is a picture of Wendy in it, over which she leans unhappily.
Then we see Peter fly in by nursery window. Nana is not there now. Peter is in his familiar garments again. He is excited and quickly bars the window to keep Wendy out. Here is repeated the vision of Peter arriving at his own nursery window and finding it barred and another child sleeping in his bed.
Then we see from nursery Wendy arriving at the window, and her terror on finding it barred. Peter is hiding and gloating over her discomfiture. She disappears. Peter is grinning and triumphantly going out by the door when we hear “Home, Sweet Home” being played on a piano in the day nursery. He steals to the door by which Mrs Darling had gone out and peeps in. The room being the day nursery is furnished as such. We see Mrs Darling at piano playing sadly. We see Peter at the door watching her, but she doesn’t see him. He knows what she is sad about, but for a time he is defiant. Soon she breaks down. The picture of Wendy is in her hands and she kisses it. She is crying. He tries to be defiant still. She is now sobbing on the piano stool. He begins to cry, too, in the night nursery sitting against John’s bed. At last he nobly flings the window open and goes away in a “What care I!” manner.
Again we see Mrs Darling, her shoulders heaving as she leans against the piano.
Now we see Wendy fly in, and then Michael on John’s shoulders. They are in their familiar clothes. They are gleeful as they point out their old beds, etc. Michael peeps into the kennel and calls the others. They all peep at their father asleep there. They just grin. Then the piano is heard again.
They gaily peep at Mrs Darling from the door. They feel ashamed as they watch her grief.
Then Wendy has a bright idea which she explains to them in dumb-show.
They get merrily into their beds and lie beneath the blankets, covering their heads.
Mrs Darling comes to the door. She has heard nothing.
Mrs Darling looks from one bed to another, but does not believe she really sees them.
“So often in my dreams their silver voices call me that I seem still to hear them when I am awake, my little children, that I shall see no more.”
The last of her words are from a chair. She stretches out her arms, thinking they are again to fall empty by her side, but the three creep to her and the arms fall on them. Rapture comes as she realizes what has happened.
Mr Darling comes out of the kennel and Nana and Liza rush in at door. There is a scene of riotous happiness, with Peter looking on from the window, a lonely figure.
Wendy indicates that she has a surprise for her parents. She opens the door, and all the other boys come in shee
pishly, one at a time. They are in their pirate garments, now very soiled and torn, and are a ragged, dirty, woeful-looking lot. They are afraid of how they are to be received, and the Darlings are at first staggered, but then embrace them. General joy. Peter is again at window. Wendy runs to him and hugs him.
“Hands off, lady. No one is going to catch me and teach me solemn things. I want always to be a little boy and to have fun.”
He is saying this when Mrs Darling goes towards him.
Then he flies away.
Then on an evening we see Peter in the street looking up at the nursery window. Wendy opens the window and beckons him lovingly to come up. He heartlessly flouts her entreaties and skips about playing his pipes. She flings him a letter. He runs up a tall London lamp-post to read it. It is shown on the screen in Wendy’s handwriting:
“Darling Peter, Mother says she will let you come for me once a year to take me to the Never, Never Land for a week to do your spring-cleaning. Your adoredable Wendy.”
At the foot of the page instead of crosses are several thimbles. Peter and she wave to each other and he flies off.
Next we see a picture of Wendy, John, and Michael going into a school in London with school satchels, etc. The old humdrum life has begun again.
Then we see Peter and Wendy flying together, through the air but without scenery. Wendy is warmly clad this time. They are evidently off to the spring-cleaning, for Peter is carrying a broom and she carries a shovel.
Very soon they all grew up except one.
It is a business street in the city. A close-up of a doorway shows these names printed on it:
3rd Floor.
Messrs Twins and Tootles, Kew Cement Co.
2nd Floor.
Messrs Curly Nibs & Co., Commissioners of Oaths.
1st Floor.
Sir S. Slightly, Financier.
Ground Floor.
Darling Bros., Solicitors.
Then we have a brief peep into each of these rooms.
First we see Tootles and the twins all on high stools at separate desks writing in ledgers.
Next Curly and Nibs in their office, also on stools busy over legal documents.
Then Slightly in a finer office. He is standing by the fire with legs outstretched, smoking a large cigar, and drinking out of a tumbler. In a close-up we see printed on tumbler the words “Brandy and Soda.” Slightly is evidently rather proud of being able to drink this.
Then John and Michael. Michael is dictating to a lady typist. John is putting on an overcoat and silk hat and goes out very professionally with a roll of papers. As soon as he has gone Michael ceases to dictate but looks lovingly at typist instead. Her typing stops, she turns and looks self-consciously at him. That is all, but we guess that it is the old story. They are all now grown up young men, some of them quite tall and stout with moustaches or spectacles but all must be easily recognizable. Their hair is of course short. The effect of height can be got by making the furniture smaller than usual. All are in correct office dress, black coats, etc., Slightly being a bit of a dandy.
Peter who is just as usual, is seen looking through the window of each office and grinning cynically at them, evidently thinking that they made the grand mistake in growing up. But they are all too occupied with their own affairs to see him.
Then we have a picture of Wendy, now a sweet young woman in her wedding-gown and looking her loveliest. Presently she goes to the window which is open, and gazes out with arms outstretched. Memories of the Never, Never Land come to her, and we see them in a vision. What we see are some of the scenes that have become familiar to us—the home under the ground, the lagoon, the forest, and all those scenes are as real as ever. But the figures are only ghosts, done in the manner which is so effective on the films, i.e. they are pale ghosts of Peter, Wendy, the other boys, Hook and Tiger Lily that we see—some dancing gaily in their night-gowns, others flitting through the wood, etc. The last scene is Hook’s arm lying among grass. In the hollow made by the hook a little bird has built a nest with eggs in it. This is shown in a close-up.
Then Wendy again in her wedding-gown is seen as before at window. She cries a little, then bravely pulls down window as a sign that the days of make-believe are ended. She smiles at herself.
Then we see a new nursery with one small bed in it. This bed is in much the same position as Wendy’s bed in the old nursery, and in it is sleeping Jane, Wendy’s daughter. We just see there is a child sleeping in it, but we don’t see her face. There is another larger bed in room evidently the nurse’s, but it is not occupied. Wendy is standing at foot of bed gazing lovingly at Jane, patting her, etc. She is in a semi-evening dress very simple. She goes over to fender on which some childish garments are hanging, and rearranges them. At this point Peter peeps through the window curtains at her and is bewildered and unhappy at seeing her so grown-up. When she has arranged garments on fender she goes quietly out on tiptoe, with a last loving look at child.
She is never aware of Peter’s presence. She also must be as tall as possible but in her case it can’t be done with making furniture smaller as this would increase size of Peter and child. It must be done artificially by high shoes, long frock, etc. As she goes out Peter comes after her with arms outstretched to her, but she doesn’t see him. When she has gone he is a rather tragic lonely figure. He lies on floor and sobs precisely as he did on the occasion when he came back for his shadow. What happened then is now repeated. Jane is wakened by his sobbing and sits up in bed. Here there should be a surprise for the audience, for though the picture seems to be continuous, Jane is played by the same actress who plays Wendy. She should make herself a little different from Wendy as by a different arrangement or even colour of hair and wear a coloured woollen night-gown instead of Wendy’s white cotton one. But of course they should still be very much alike.
“Boy, why are you crying?”
Peter, in answer to her question, rises, comes to foot of bed and bows as he did to Wendy. Jane replies by bowing as Wendy did.
“Girl, what is your name?”
“Jane Wendy. What is your name?”
“Peter Pan.”
“Where is your mother, Peter?”
“Don’t have a mother, Jane.”
“Oh!”
The result of this conversation is that Jane does precisely as Wendy did. She jumps out of bed, runs to him, and puts her arms round him. She has evidently taken the mother’s place.
Then a picture of Peter and Jane flying through the air carrying broom and shovel, just as we have seen Peter and Wendy doing it. They are very gay, Jane is in the woolen night-gown; so that we see clearly that it is Jane and not Wendy.
Then the scene is again the Never, Never Land, a lovely part of the wood near a pool and waterfall. It is a sunny summer day, and first we see Jane doing Peter’s washing in a tub on ground, then flying with it up to a rope that is hung high between branches. On this she hangs the garments. She is now dressed in the familiar Wendy garments, but tucked up, etc. in a businesslike way. Tink appears and pulls her hair. While the washing is going on Peter appears on his goat. The flowers are following him just as on the day when they went to the lagoon, and in the same way he orders them to go back. Then he relents and lets them come. He tethers his goat. He sits on a mossy bank playing his pipes. For a little time we see Peter and Jane thus engaged. Another vague figure appears and watches them from behind a tree unseen by them. It is the ghost of the grown-up Wendy in long dress, who has somehow got here to see that her child is safe. She is just a shadow. She watches the two sweetly, but being grown-up, she cannot join in the adventure. Tink, however, discovers her and pulls her hair. Wendy goes away sadly. The crocodile comes and tries to dance to Peter’s pipes—so do bears and other friendly animals. Soon the pool and waterfall are alive with mermaids who play games, splash each other, etc. Peter continues playing his pipes and Jane attending to his washing.
Then we have the final picture, which should also be the most beautiful
. It is the last moment of the acted play, but much can be done with it that is impossible in the play. The time is now sunset. We see the Tree Tops with the Little House now perched high among them. All around are tiny fairy houses (not nests as in the play, but absurd little houses of thatch and moss, each with a window and a chimney). The exact nature of these fairy houses is for future consideration. As moonlight comes, these houses light up, and at the doors, and flying about among the trees and tree-tops, are innumerable fairies, gossiping, quarrelling, and playing about. The music of this should all be as it is in the play, where it is excellent, and mixed up with it should be the bells to indicate much chatter among the fairies.
The scene goes on with changes of lighting, etc. After the Little House lights up it is sometimes in one place, sometimes in another, sometimes near, sometimes far away—once it is sailing on the lagoon, and the mermaids are pulling it about in fun—then the fairies capture it and take it back to the tree-tops. We see Peter and Jane at the door waving their handkerchiefs to us. Finally there is no girl, and he is alone. There are no animals. The fairies have gone to their houses; their lights go out (not simultaneously, but fitfully). Now there are only lights from moon and stars, and Peter is seen in silhouette alone, playing his pipes.
From Fifty Years of Peter Pan by Roger Lancelyn Green (London: Peter Davies, 1954).
Peter Pan On-Screen: A Cinematic Survey
At a meeting with Barrie in 1921, Charlie Chaplin told the author that Peter Pan “has even greater possibilities as a film than a play.” Barrie believed that “film can do things for Peter Pan that the ordinary stage cannot do,” and he hoped that it could “strike a note of wonder . . . and whet the appetite for marvels” (Green 169). He composed scenes for a film version (reproduced in this volume), including a soccer game played high up in the trees, but they were never used. Instead, Paramount Pictures, authorized contractually to adapt Peter Pan for the screen, hired Herbert Brenon to direct a film based on the play. Brenon decided against using Barrie’s screenplay, and hired Willis Goldbeck to write the script.