Northants, Leics &amp; Rutland

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="641" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/034_Peter-Pan-Royal-and-Derngate-2025_Pamela-Raith-Photography.jpg" alt="Peter Pan and The Lost boys Northampton Royal and Derngate" class="wp-image-63825" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/034_Peter-Pan-Royal-and-Derngate-2025_Pamela-Raith-Photography.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/034_Peter-Pan-Royal-and-Derngate-2025_Pamela-Raith-Photography-300x192.jpg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/034_Peter-Pan-Royal-and-Derngate-2025_Pamela-Raith-Photography-768x492.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



A band of feral kids on an island with no grown-ups, living purely for adventure? Wahoo. It&#8217;s the stuff great fiction is made of, whether it&#8217;s through the pen of J.M. Barrie, Arthur Ransome or William Golding, children adore stories that contain that sense of the unhinged, surviving, defying the odds. And the idea of being plucked from the safety of your cosy London bedroom to live a life of derring do and heroically defeating villains? You can&#8217;t go wrong. Throw in a bit of flying and it really is the stuff dreams are made of. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="702" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/107_Peter-Pan-Royal-and-Derngate-2025_Pamela-Raith-Photography.jpg" alt="Peter Pan and Tink Royal and Derngate Northampton" class="wp-image-63828" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/107_Peter-Pan-Royal-and-Derngate-2025_Pamela-Raith-Photography.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/107_Peter-Pan-Royal-and-Derngate-2025_Pamela-Raith-Photography-300x211.jpg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/107_Peter-Pan-Royal-and-Derngate-2025_Pamela-Raith-Photography-768x539.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Millie Davies as Poppy Sunshine and David Breeds as Peter Pan</figcaption></figure>



In this year&#8217;s glittering production at Royal &amp; Derngate, Peter Pan (played by David Breeds) and the Lost Boys are captivating and compelling to an audience of children who exist in an age of screen-saturation, and Royal &amp; Derngate&#8217;s annual panto is always played with their young audience font of mind, invariably dialling down (for good or bad) much of the bawdiness and peril that pantomine is traditionally known for and creating a world of safety &#8211; cosy crime for kids, if you like &#8211; casting CBeebies favourites in key roles (this year sees BAFTA winning presenter George Webster as a key Lost Boy/pirate), and layering in references they all just get in a way the adults possibly don&#8217;t. There are beige flags, no cap and, of course, the ubiquitous 6/7. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="743" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/024_Peter-Pan-Royal-and-Derngate-2025_Pamela-Raith-Photography.jpg" alt="Geoege Webster Peter pan Royal and Derngate" class="wp-image-63835" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/024_Peter-Pan-Royal-and-Derngate-2025_Pamela-Raith-Photography.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/024_Peter-Pan-Royal-and-Derngate-2025_Pamela-Raith-Photography-300x223.jpg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/024_Peter-Pan-Royal-and-Derngate-2025_Pamela-Raith-Photography-768x571.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



Music is a huge part of the the show, which plays both to the kids in the audience and their grown-ups, with the live band and cast belting out the likes of Golden from KPop Demon Hunters, Defying Gravity from Wicked, The Greatest Showman&#8216;s From Now On, to Proud Mary by Creedence and Guns N&#8217; Roses&#8217; Sweet Child O&#8217;Mine, we&#8217;re appealing to all ages here, amirite?



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="843" height="1024" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/057_Peter-Pan-Royal-and-Derngate-2025_Pamela-Raith-Photography-843x1024.jpg" alt="Tinks Georgia Brierly-Smith in Peter Pan Simone Robinson" class="wp-image-63837" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/057_Peter-Pan-Royal-and-Derngate-2025_Pamela-Raith-Photography-843x1024.jpg 843w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/057_Peter-Pan-Royal-and-Derngate-2025_Pamela-Raith-Photography-247x300.jpg 247w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/057_Peter-Pan-Royal-and-Derngate-2025_Pamela-Raith-Photography-768x932.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/057_Peter-Pan-Royal-and-Derngate-2025_Pamela-Raith-Photography.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 843px) 100vw, 843px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Georgia Brierly-Smith (Tinks), Simone Robinson (Miss Doodle/Myrtle)</figcaption></figure>



There are some seriously impressive sets of pipes amongst the cast, in particular David Breeds (Pan), Georgia Brierly-Smith (Tinks), Simone Robinson (Miss Doodle/Myrtle) and Millie Davies (Poppy Sunshine), but they frankly pale in comparison to Captain Hook&#8217;s epic Guns N&#8217; Roses drum solo &#8211; Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen may only have had one arm, but Captain Hook had something else up his sleeve.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="739" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/085_Peter-Pan-Royal-and-Derngate-2025_Pamela-Raith-Photography.jpg" alt="John Thomson as Captin Hook Peter Pan Royal and Derngte" class="wp-image-63839" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/085_Peter-Pan-Royal-and-Derngate-2025_Pamela-Raith-Photography.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/085_Peter-Pan-Royal-and-Derngate-2025_Pamela-Raith-Photography-300x222.jpg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/085_Peter-Pan-Royal-and-Derngate-2025_Pamela-Raith-Photography-768x568.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">John Thomson leads the cast as Captain Hook</figcaption></figure>



Played by John Thomson (Cold Feet, The Fast Show), there&#8217;s something inherently sad and unsure about this version of Hook. A dandified bully with no real friends of his own who hates children? It&#8217;s such a juicy role to play to play that some of the greats have jumped at the chance to fill those shiny, curmudgeonly, knee-high boots and natty scarlet coat: Dustin Hoffman, Jude Law, Jason Isaacs, Rhys Ifans and even the sainted Stanley Tucci. John Thomson though, brings something decidedly different to this heretofore wickedly swashbuckling role, a sort of poignancy you don&#8217;t expect &#8211; a sense that Hook is clinging on to the expectations of a ruthless father, a lost little boy himself who simply can&#8217;t bring himself to dispatch the sleeping Pan. There&#8217;s a sort of softness that Cold Feet fans may have come to expect from Thomson, and it&#8217;s surprisingly endearing. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="1333" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/Gordon-Cooper-as-Mrs-Sweet.jpg" alt="Gordon Cooper as Mrs Sweet Royal and Derngate" class="wp-image-63800" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/Gordon-Cooper-as-Mrs-Sweet.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/Gordon-Cooper-as-Mrs-Sweet-225x300.jpg 225w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/12/Gordon-Cooper-as-Mrs-Sweet-768x1024.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Gordon Cooper as Mrs Sweet</figcaption></figure>



There&#8217;s slapstick a-plenty, of course, and panto dame Mrs Sweet, played by Co-Director and Derngate stalwart Gordon Cooper, is the real keystone of the production, bringing it all together with fabulously irreverent humour and jaw-dropping costumes &#8211; at one point she comes on stage dressed as a lighthouse complete with working lantern on top of her head. Alexander McQueen who? Oh, and you can&#8217;t go wrong in Northampton with a bright red pair of Doc Martens. This is a joyous production the whole family will love &#8211; we were dancing in the aisles. 



<a href="https://royalandderngate.co.uk/whats-on/peter-pan-25/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The All New Adventures of Peter Pan</a> continues at the Royal and Derngate in Northampton until 31 Dec. Book your tickets <a href="https://royalandderngate.co.uk/whats-on/peter-pan-25/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>. 



<a href="https://www.royalandderngate.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Royal and Derngate</a>, 19-21 Guildhall Rd, Northampton, NN1 1DP



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Review: The All New Adventures of Peter Pan at the Royal & Derngate Northampton

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