Lost JM Barrie play kickstarts final fundraiser for Scottish Children's Literature and Storytelling Centre
This article originally appeared on Culture24.
"Lost" first play of Peter Pan author to front campaign for new national storytelling centre's final push for £1.5m
JM Barrie with pupils at Dumfries Academy© Courtesy of Peter Pan Moat Brae TrustBandelero the Bandit was written by Barrie whilst he was a pupil at Dumfries Academy and was performed there in 1877 when he was seventeen years old.
Following the adventures of an accused man the play will be performed by young Scottish actors at the academy on Sunday June 26, nearly 140 years after it was first performed there.
Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust (PPMBT) is working in collaboration with Scottish Youth Theatre (SYT) for the production and hopes their appeal can raise enough money to turn Moat Brae House, a Georgian townhouse and garden where Barrie played as a child, into a national children’s centre.
Heading the fundraising campaign is trust patron Joanna Lumley who said: “This is such an exciting week for us, with Bandelero and the launch of our final fundraising push.
“Imagine, being able to revive JM Barrie’s first play, which he thought was lost forever, so people can enjoy it again after all this time in the very place it was originally performed.
“Projects like this are exactly what the Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust is all about, and show the enormous value of creating a national children’s literature and storytelling centre for Scotland."
As a little boy it was Moat Brae House, and its lovely garden, where JM Barrie played and dreamed of Peter.
"We want to give thousands of children every year the same chance to be inspired, to make believe and also to discover the wonder of children’s literature,” added Lumley.
Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust patron Joanna Lumley reading a book to children© Courtesy of Peter Pan Moat Brae TrustRenovations to Moat Brae House will see it completely restored with the addition of a café, shop, education/performance spaces and a Neverland-themed Discovery Garden, which will give individuals of all ages the freedom to explore and invent stories as the young author used to do.
Barrie thought the play and its script had been destroyed, but it survived and was found by Ronnie Jack, Professor Emeritus in English Literature at Edinburgh University, at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in the USA.
He said: “Barrie thought the play was lost so it’s wonderful that it has survived. It’s an important work in a number of ways, for example it shows how he loved to collect themes and ideas from everything he read and turn them into something of his own.
“It also shows his early fascination with special effects. This reached its ultimate expression in Tinker Bell, who was a character created entirely by special effects using sound and light.”
For more information about Moat Brae House visit the Trust website at: www.peterpanmoatbrae.org.
- The first rehearsed reading of Bandelero the Bandit will be performed alongside the Nursery chapters from Peter Pan by Scottish Youth Theatre at Dumfries Academy on Friday June 26 at 7.30pm. Tickets are £12 (school children and students £5) and are on sale at Midsteeple Box Office 01387 253 383 and on www.ticketweb.co.uk/event/bandelero-the-bandit-tickets/178963.
