REVIEW | Neverland, Camden Fringe

★ ★ ★

Reviewer - Jennie

*Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in return for an honest review

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When you think ‘music festival’, what comes to mind? Is it young people taking god-knows-what pills at 2am, is it the mosh pit, is it the hippies establishing a spiritual connection with your soul? Or is it the struggling artist desperate for someone to check out their music? These stereotypes are what Act II Productions run within their show Neverland.

Neverland is a Camden Fringe show set in a music festival called, you guessed it, Neverland, and it takes you on a journey meeting these characters and exploring the festival, combined with live music. It was devised in a 2-week rehearsal period with a group of young performers, which is impressive considering the performance they put on.

Immediately, before you walk into the space, you are immersed into the world of Neverland, met with stoic, bored security guards and an enthusiastic young musician. There is a buzz around the theatre as the atmosphere is set by a security worker pacing up and down the audience, as the audience giggled nervously waiting to get picked on. This interaction with the audience was the perfect way to get the audience in the mood for the show, and it landed so well. 

The show consisted of monologues, dialogue, music and physical theatre. The monologues were beautifully written and gave us an insight into the character’s backstories, and why they were at the festival. They were a mixture of comedic and heart breaking, backed up by a mixture of live and recorded sound. The dialogue was often funny and accompanied by very physical, exaggerated movement and body language, to help convey the stereotypes. Stereotypes are at the heart of this production, something that is obvious but doesn’t feel pushed too much. Multi-rolling is also a key part of this show – with such a small cast, they made the most of them. This was mostly smooth and effective, but at times got muddled as actors struggled to distinguish their characters.

For me, the stand-out in this production was the comedic performances from the cast, the use of puppetry, and the musical performances. The comedy was spot on, interactive, and very funny. The entire cast has fantastic comedic timing and pretty much every joke landed as it should. I couldn’t fault it. The use of puppetry is something that was unexpected in this production, but incredibly effective. What they used to create the ‘puppet’ was imaginative, and the cast were mostly animated whilst operating it, effectively bringing it to life. The music was something special – a mixture of live instruments, singing and pre-recorded and mixed beats really brought home that festival feel, especially having this onstage. There was a moment in the show where two of the performers sing together, and that for me was the best moment of the whole show. Beautiful voices, beautiful playing, and beautiful harmonies. 

Whilst there are lots of great, memorable moments in this show, there were unfortunately some elements of the production in this show that didn’t quite land. Physical theatre is something that I mentioned earlier on, and unfortunately, it didn’t quite fit with the rest of the show. Whilst the sequences were inspired, they felt repetitive and sometimes unnecessary. It felt like they were taking up space where there could’ve been another great music moment or group scene. Something else that felt ‘off’ was a lack of plot. Whilst shows can obviously work incredibly well without much of an overall plot, for Neverland, the lack of plot gave it a lack of direction. This was a shame because in some ways, it felt like we hadn’t loved much from where we started. It’s such a shame that these things hindered an otherwise great, entertaining piece of theatre. 

Overall, Neverland is a creative, funny, heartfelt show with lots to enjoy. It’s a show that is worth checking out. If you’re looking for a fun, impressive piece of theatre with great music, great writing and incredibly talented young performers, then this is absolutely the show for you. You will not believe that this was made in just 2 weeks.