March 19, 2020 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
©
Shelton Mason County Journal. All rights reserved. Upgrade to access Premium Tools
PAGE 32 (32 of 48 available) PREVIOUS NEXT Jumbo Image Save To Scrapbook Set Notifiers PDF JPG
March 19, 2020 |
|
Website © 2025. All content copyrighted. Copyright Information Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Request Content Removal | About / FAQ | Get Acrobat Reader ![]() |
Page 8—8 Shelton-Mason County Journal — Thursday, March 19, 2020
Film ’Wendy’ delivers an updated, 1
Americanized take on tale of Peter Pan
t this point, there must
be as many “reimagin—
' gs” of J .M. Barrie’s
Peter Pan stories as there have
been relatively faithful retell-
ings of the source materials
themselves.
In part,
this is be-
cause Bar-
rie’s char-
acters, like
Grimms’
Fairy Tales,
have been so
memetically
By KIRK
BOXLEITNER Portrayed by
Disney that
many people
forget how dark their original
tales actually were.
But I suspect it also owes
to how many facets there are
to the Peter Pan mythos, to
the extent that everyone Sees
something different in them.
Asking someone what they like
best about Peter Pan is a sort
of Rorschach test that tells you
more about who they are than
who the character of Peter Pan
might be.
It makes sense, then, that
director and co-screenwriter
Benh Zeitlin would deliver
such a revisionary take on Pe—
ter Pan with “Wendy,” which
gives us a black Peter Pan and
a Wendy Darling who’s the
true driving protagonist of the
narrative, in a well-intentioned
effort to open up Barrie’s Ed-
wardian-era tales of adventure
for English school boys, so boys
and girls around the world can
see themselves taking part in
those adventures,
That being said, this is an
incredibly American take on
Peter Pan, with the Darling
family updated from a middle—
HARSTINE ISLAND NEWS
More details on next step for Kiwanis’ annual dinner
ith this coronavi—
rus going around,
they might
be trying to turn out
the lights here on the
island and in town;
that is except for
the Harstine Island
bridge. It looks like
the old girl is going
to get all lit up and
fancy with those new By MIKE
fan-dangled LED type CALLAGHAN
lights.
Several months
ago, the county made plans
,.
vets.
Wendy Darling (Devin France) and Peter (Yashua Mack) get ready to fly in
Benh Zeitlin’s “Wendy.” Courtesy photo
class London household to
an American Southern single
mother raising her rambunc-
tiously grubby kids in the bed-
rooms above the whistle-stop
greasy spoon diner she runs
during the day.
Likewise, rather than pixie
dust, the Darling children are
transported to Peter’s Nev-
I erland, a Hawaiian—flavored
volcanic island that is never
named in this adaptation,
by hopping onboard a night
train, their ragamufiin clothes
lending them a passing resem-
blance to the rail—riding hobos
of the Great Depression.
Yashua Mack displays the
right mix of personality, traits
to play Peter, whom Barrie
to replace the lights and get
them in order. The county
also has a plan to
reinforce the bridge
and make it stron-
about all of this is
the seagulls. Will
they be happy with
the new fixtures?
After all, we all
spot dropped on our
cars every once in
a While. And what
would we do with our extra
ger. My only concern
need to have a white
A’r’z
himself wrote as an endlessly
self-confident catalyst for excit-
ing adventures, who’s none-
theless capable of shockingly
thoughtless acts of cruelty,
while Devin France’s Wendy
can set her jaw sternly enough,
and turn her Fremen blue—on-
blue eyes steely enough, that
one could easily imagine her .
playing the girlhood version of
Jodie Foster’s Clarice Starling. ,
Zeitlin is sufficiently clear-
eyed about the inherent dark-
ness of Barrie’s material that
“Wendy” doesn’t take long to
turn sinister, as we learn the
fate of former Lost Boys (and
girls) who have succumbed to
their sorrows, dwelling in the
barely habitable ruins of build-
time if there were no gulls to
count as we cross the bridge?
As mentioned last week,
the Pioneer Kiwanis Club’s
Crab and Clam Dinner and
Auction has been postponed.
No new date has been set
yet, but the club is hard at
work trying to sort these
things out.
So, what does‘that mean
for people who had their tick-
ets bought and were ready
to go chow down? One, you
can hold onto them until the
next dinner date is set and
ings, mired in barren fields
covered in volcanic ash.
Like the Asphodel Meadows
of the ancient Greek under-
world, they’re mediocre souls
reduced to neutral shades, los-
ing their memories of who they
used tobe.
And like the “onlies” in the
original series “Star Trek”
episode “Miri,” once the bloom ‘
of youth starts to fade, decrepi-
tude catches up with them
fast, in a way that’s chillingly
unsettling to watch.
And no, you won’t be sur-
prised when one of those for-
mer Lost Boys rises up to lead
his fellows in a predatory quest
to reclaim what they’ve lost,
fashioning himself a jagged
use them at that time. Two,
you can ask for a refund by
contacting'the person who
sold you the ticket and they
will get your money back to
you. Also, club members are
calling those of you who they
remember selling tickets to
and they will be asking you
what you .want to do. This is
an important event for the
children of our community
and the Pioneer Kiwanis
Club will do everything it
can do to make this work for
everyone.
hook to catch his prey.
Much like the epilogue Bar-
rie wrote four years after the
premiere of his original 1904
Peter Pan stage play, “Wendy”
delivers a deeply bittersweet
ending, acknowledging that
youth lost can never be recap-
tured, but also calling atten—
tion-to all the adventures that
adulthood has to offer.
Speaking as a lifelong Peter
Pan fan, this is a distinctive
retelling worth watching.
I Kirk Boxleitner is arts editor
for the Port Townsend & Jef-
ferson County Leader, the Shel-
ton-Mason County Journal’s
sister paper. He can be reached
at kboxleitnerQatleadercom.
The senior lunch program
is also suspended for a while.
This is also a wise decision
as the very name of the
lunch program suggests that
most attendees are seniors
and seniors are the one most
affected by the coronavirus.
I did hear that all the fixing
for the St. PatriCk’s Day corn
beef dinner will be saved and
served at a later date.
I Mike Callaghan can be
reached at sobadog@msn.
com.