Picture from Flyer.

Pan



In April 2000, PAN, the story of Peter Pan will premiere at the magnificent Capitol Theatre in Sydney. Produced by Elyse and Kerry Jewel & Jin Henson's Creature Workshop, this production will set new benchmarks in the creation of theatrical magic.

This is NOT a musical, but a theatrical play with songs and a symphonic underscore.




Philip Quast who is playing the part of Captain Hook, as I understand, also plays George Darling (father of Wendy and the boys) and this is also a comic role. The playwright, Frank Gauntlett is a wonderful 'wordy' man and the 'creatures' - including a giant crocodile 'puppet' which takes two puppeteers to operate are all being made by Jim Hensons Creature Workshop in London. This is a multi-million dollar production from producers Kerry and Elyse Jewel and being directed by NZ director John Banos, music by composer Michael Harvey.

Picture from inside Brochure













What is also different about this production is that there are NO children in the show, all the roles of the Darling children (Wendy and the boys) and Peter Pan himself are being played by adult actors. Just short ones!







Picture of Philip from Promo. video.

Transcript of what Philip said on Pan promotional video.

"It's all coming on like it is an adventure, the whole thing, even walking in here and seeing that (looking at the giant crocodile and laughing slightly) for the first time is all part of the process. It's sort of Never Neverland is gradually being revealed you know and I sort of don't want to see it all at once.

Even going back home after not being to Australia for four years. Seeing how it has changed with the Olympic Games and the Millennium and all that happening. It sort of feels all part of the whole project as well."








Pictures of Philip from promotional video.

We would like to thank LIZ our Australian correspondent for providing us with this information and pictures from Flyer & Brochure.










Philip as Hook

The Cast of PAN




Excerpt from PAN Pull-Out Article in the Sydney Daily Telegraph 8th April 2000


'Philip Enjoys a Touch of Evil'

Philip Quast has three challenging tasks as the star of PAN.

"When it opens I'm seen as George Darling, the warm-hearted father of Wendy and her two younger brothers, he said.

He's the head of a middle class London family in the Victorian era. As such he's a man to look up to and respect, but in reality George has trouble putting on his dress tie and his wife Mary is the one who makes the decisions and keeps things running smoothly."

Then, when Peter Pan flies away with the children to Neverland, I become Captain James Hook - the antithesis of everything George Darling is: Hook is evil."

Picture from Pan Brouchure

When you want an actor who can perform multiple roles, Philip Quast twice winner of the Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Musical is your man.

Now an international theatre star, Philip shot to prominence as Javert in the original Australian production of Les Miserables.

He went to London to play the role in the West End, and was chosen by Cameron Mackintosh, from the hundreds who had played Javert to sing on the international cast recording and in the 10th Anniversary Concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

Philip won his first Olivier Award - the highest honour in British theatre - for his second performance as George in Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George, and his second in Cameron Mackintosh's production of The Fix.

"Because I got both Oliviers for my roles in musicals some people think that this is my metier," he said. "In fact, I've only done a few musicals." In 20 years, since he graduated from NIDA, Philip had notched up more than 80 hours of television comedy and drama in productions such as Fields of Fire, Brides of Christ, The Damnation of Harvey McHugh and 17 years of Play School."

His stage credits include performances in West End productions such as The Hunting of the Snark and St Joan, half a dozen productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and STC (with whom he won one of his two Sydney Critics Awards and three Mo Awards), MTC, Nimrod and the State Theatre Company of South Australia.

He said: 'I always try to discover the 'window' in my characters in a bad man, or a villain, for instance, like Javert or Hook, the window is the moment that lets you realise that although you may not quite feel sorry for them, you understand how they got that way and you think: "There but for the grace of God ... "Hook is deliciously vile of course, and you can play him for a lot of laughs but I will consciously try not to play to the audience."

PAN, he says, is "a lovely mix of Frank Gauntlett's quite incredible language, beautiful and comic by turn, and something of the reality of a film. So, when we do our sword fighting, for instance, it has to look real.

The sword fighting, excuse the pun, is a killer. It's tremendously fast, much faster than anything I've done before, and I've done quite a bit. "So it's exciting and spectacular in its own right, while at the same time being a clear metaphor of the conflict between good and evil."

We hope to add pictures from this article soon.

We would like to thank Megan and Matt for providing us details on this article.


Pan page continued


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