ST Feb 19, 2005

Never Neverland
Boys will be boys, but Peter Pan should remain the stuff of fairy tales, not reality
By Ong Soh Chin

THE story of Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie's famous character, continues to fascinate many children today with its heady promise of eternal youth.

I suspect Barrie's story has an especial impact on young boys because the main girl in it, Wendy, is pretty much a grown-up with her practicality and the way she takes care of her younger brothers.

In contrast, Tinkerbell, the story's other female, is capricious and vindictive, and learns the grown-up lessons of true love and generosity the hard way.

As a young girl, the message I subconsciously imbibed from it was this: Girls are nurturing and responsible. Boys will always be boys.

Fast forward a couple of decades and I see this mentality still persists, not only within me but also around me. (What woman hasn't fallen for a man's boyish charms only to realise that she is doomed forever to playing nursemaid?)

My love affair with Peter Pan was rejuvenated recently when I caught the Oscar-nominated movie Finding Neverland.

Starring Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet, it tells the story of Barrie's real life friendship with a woman, Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, and her four sons, which eventually inspired him to write his famous fairy tale.

All in, it is a magnificent movie that reminds one of the forgotten child inside us and how, even in adversity, one can find solace in one's dreams and imagination.

Finding Neverland also jolted my memory of another excellent movie I had caught a few months earlier. This was a little-seen retelling of Peter Pan, starring a cast of relative unknowns and directed by P.J. Hogan, who did Muriel's Wedding.

It brought a lump to my throat the way Barrie's story never did when I read it or saw the Disney version on the big screen as a child.

Watching it now drove home the realisation that Peter Pan probably has more resonance for adults than for kids, despite it being generally regarded as a children's tale.

Kids are kids. They have no idea what adulthood will hold for them. And in that innocence, there is some measure of bliss.

For adults who have been there, done that and know they can never go back again, Peter Pan takes them back to a Lost (Boys) paradise that can never be regained.

Surveying Peter Pan's world as an adult also has deeper and more disturbing implications. While a child's universe is necessarily black and white, an adult's is far from being so.

The movie Finding Neverland has an important and uplifting message. But what it glosses over is also important.

Never mind the fact that Sylvia is a widow in the movie when, in real life, her husband Arthur was still alive when Barrie befriended the family.

More importantly, what the movie ignores is the fact that Barrie was a controversial character whose friendship with young boys was questioned.

The movie also sidesteps the eventual tragedy of most of Llewelyn Davies' sons.

Of the five boys - only four of whom were featured in the movie - one died in World War I, another drowned himself in an apparent gay suicide pact and Peter, the boy who inspired

Barrie's famous character, eventually killed himself.

He had apparently been depressed at being cut out of Barrie's will.

But real life aside, the Peter Pan story in itself is really all about darkness masquerading as light.
British theatre critic Lyn Gardner called it one of the most 'darkly disturbing' plays ever written. She said: 'It is the story of a strange, dysfunctional boy who refuses to grow up, who hangs around a nursery window and lures its children away.

'There is no evidence that J.M. Barrie ever acted on any of his impulses and most contemporary reports describe him as distinctly asexual, but his predilection for hanging around Kensington

Gardens making friends with small children would today set alarm bells ringing and send social workers running to take protective action.'

Perhaps it is no surprise then that one of Peter Pan's biggest fans is Michael Jackson.

The pop superstar, once on top of his game and loved by millions, is now mired, for the second time, in a legal battle to clear his name of child molestation accusations.

Even if he manages to do so successfully, will the real world still be able to embrace the idea of a man who refuses to grow up, sharing his Neverland ranch and having sleepovers with kids?

It is the stuff of fairy tales.

But sadly, as most adults know, fairy tales remain only in a child's dream world.

As seductive as the world of dreams and imagination may be, losing one's grip on reality can only lead to disaster and tragedy.

Send your comments to stlife@sph.com.sg