\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n \n <\/div><\/div>
<\/p>\n Owen O\u2019Farrell and Wendy Perkins return to Neverland in \u201cFor Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday,\u201d a play that will be presented at Carbondale\u2019s Thunder River Theatre Company over the next three weekends.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> Thunder River Theatre Company will close out its 2025-26 season with \u201cFor Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday,\u201d a theatrical deconstruction of one of the most iconic stories of the 20th century.\u00a0<\/p>\n The play will run over the next three weekends, starting on Friday and ending on May 17. The production blends memory, complex family relationships and imagination into a meditation on aging, loss and the enduring pull of childhood in the face of one\u2019s own mortality.<\/p>\n Playwright Sarah Ruhl wrote the play as a gift for her mother on her 70th birthday. Ruhl\u2019s mother played Peter Pan on the stage, hence the \u201cher\u201d in the title. Ruhl also played the role of Peter Pan as a child actress and she remembers her father bringing flowers to her after performances. The play has deep resonance for her as it relates to both of her parents.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe playwright grew up in dusty theaters around Chicago,\u201d said director Renee Prince, who has deep ties with TRTC. \u201cThis play is really an exploration of aging and growing up as seen through the Peter Pan myth. The play truly is a love letter to family and to the power of what theater can do in our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n The play\u2019s structure draws inspiration from Japanese Noh theater in which the story is told in three distinct movements. It moves from a hospital room where grown siblings have gathered at their father\u2019s hospital bedside during his final days to a breakfast table during their father\u2019s wake. The last movement involves a dreamlike Neverland.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is such a wonderful piece that really captures the art of play,\u201d said Missy Moore, artistic director of TRTC. \u201cIt is placed in the world of magical realism but deals with very real-life issues.\u201d<\/p>\n And while the play is inspired by Japanese Noh, it is decidedly set in the Midwest, a common theme for a play written by Ruhl.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe aesthetic of the play really embraces Iowa and the Midwest,\u201d Prince said. \u201cRuhl calls it a \u2018Midwestern Noh drama\u2019 which has been fun to play with.\u201d<\/p>\n The production features veteran performers from the Roaring Fork Valley: Wendy Perkins, Chris Wheatley, Owen O\u2019Farrell, Jeff Carlson, Kristin Carlson and Bob Moore.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re working with some of the elders in our theater community, people who have really built this theater community, and that is something that\u2019s very special to me, to be able to honor their talent and their legacies and the gifts that they\u2019ve brought to this valley for decades,\u201d Prince said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Carlson said Prince gathered the cast together for a meal before rehearsals started to create a family feel.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe practiced being a family together,\u201d Carlson said. \u201cWe shared stories with each other, interrupted one another, went off on tangents, settled into those kinds of filial relationships. And of course we\u2019ve all worked with one another over the years. We left that dinner already feeling like a family.\u201d<\/p>\n Perkins plays Wendy in the show and said the character resonated with her deeply.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing in my 70s, I am dealing with all of the issues in the play \u2014 end of life, family relationships, politics. You realize, \u2018It\u2019s OK not to feel grown up.\u2019 The joy of imagination and play are at the forefront of the piece,\u201d Perkins said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I\u2019d like the audience to take away from it is that real combination of heart and joy, and not forgetting that we all can tap into that in our lives, and the reconfirmation that whatever feelings you\u2019re having, it\u2019s OK,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Carlson said he hopes watching siblings gather around one another and really delving into more profound conversations is a reminder for people to do the same in their own lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI hope that what folks take away is a desire to connect with their loved ones, family or friends, and ask them, \u2018What do you think and feel about growing up, growing old? What does death mean to you? Are you scared of it? What do you think?\u2019 I hope it sparks conversations over nooks and dinner tables in people\u2019s own lives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n As Moore looks back on the company\u2019s landmark 30th season, she takes pride in the diversity and quality of the slate.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMy hope is that, especially those who have seen the entire season, people see the journey and the arc of it,\u201d Moore said. \u201cWe started off with [a play by] Sam Shepard, an iconic classic, \u2018True West,\u2019 and then we jumped into a one-man show, \u2018An Iliad,\u2019 based on one of theater\u2019s oldest texts.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur next production was a very dark comedy and satire, \u2018Secretary,\u2019 and then we literally built a mountain for \u2018K2,\u2019 a show with characters staring into a physical and meta-physical abyss, and now this. I think that if you can actually apply yourself in the theater, anything\u2019s possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Prince said TRTC\u2019s ethos fits well into a community rooted in pushing limits and taking risks.<\/p>\n \u201cThis community talks a lot about adventure risk-taking and outdoor risk-taking and Thunder River takes huge, big, audacious creative risks,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is a testament to Missy\u2019s vision here, but it\u2019s a perfect theater company for this community.\u201d<\/p>\n Moore credited Prince with posing the right questions that drill to the core of human experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAt our very first readthrough of \u2018Peter Pan,\u2019 Renee hit the nail when she said to the cast, \u2018This play grapples with big existential questions, and what better craft than theater to take a deep dive into it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Photo by Emily Henley<\/p>\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n