VocalEye Review - Peter Pan

When I was a kid, I didn't quite buy into the likes of the Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland…or Peter Pan.

This nerdy girl had no time for whimsy and subterfuge.

And yet, on December 7 2019, I found myself enraptured by the swashbuckling shinnanigans of Peter Pan and Captain James Hook and their motley, rambunctious sidekicks.

The Bad Hats theatre production at the Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island was replete with curious and dramatic sound effects, gravity-defying high jinx and well-timed live description courtesy of VocalEye Descriptive Arts describer, Ingrid Turk.

Without Ingrid's verbal cues, it would have been difficult to discern the sudden streaks of starlight from Tinkerbell's glittering appearances. One staccato burst of chimes, as delicate as sprinkles on a cupcake, sounds just like another, you see.

And those breathless interjections of "Splash!" could have been anything, in a child's imagination, from stepping in puddles to waging a water balloon fight.

But there was Ingrid's voice coming through our earpieces – a tad static-filled during the first act, unfortunately – describing scenes of harrowing lagoon crossings and shadowy, slow-motion underwater battles.

For this woman-child with tunnel vision in her right eye and no usable vision in her left, Ingrid's verbal guidance was a balm to bedazzled eyes.

And then there was the touch tour.

I got to plunk away at Tinkerbell's piano! And one of the pirates actually looked impressed when I played a line of 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' on his accordion. I got a photo with him. And with Tinkerbell. And now I want to go to the Disney Store to get a fairy dress like hers.

Ahem.

As I started off by saying, this nerdy girl is not a fan of whimsy.

Louisa May Alcott's little women didn't crawl through tunnels, did they?

And Dickens' Estella would never consort with pirates.

"Well," says the woman-child to the nerdy girl, "attend a described theatre performance sometime. It will take you places you never dreamed you could, or should, go."