Converting the timeless Peter Pan story into a queer-pop fuelled theatre production, Club NVRLND is like entering a nostalgic fever dream. Our favourite early 2000s pop classics make up the setlist and the immensely talented NVRLND cast perform them throughout the night.
The production begins with a standard boundary between audience and the performers. As the audience is transformed into Lost Boys, and Club NVRLND’s M.C. Tiger introduces us to the club’s staff, that boundary begins to blur. The cast jumps on and off the stage, weaving through the Lost Boys and moving the stage to create elevated platforms for the club bouncers on which to become go-go dancers.
Wendy enters the scene in a wedding dress and Peter Pan, having not seen her for almost two decades, insists she stays with them in Club NVRLND. Tink(er Bell) comes down from her DJ booth upstairs when it’s time to celebrate Peter Pan’s birthday. Turning 30, and famously not keen on growing up, Pan is furious that anyone would try to make him celebrate a day that marks getting older. Chaos ensues and the Lost Boys go back and forth between enjoying their club night and focusing on the plot unfolding in front of them.
Club NVRLND struggles with being a song or scene too long, and the production’s break from the standard one-hour Fringe show is felt.
Club NVRLND, Assembly Checkpoint, until 24 Aug (not 13, 20), 9.15pm