News
TRH attend a Gala Performance of Peter Pan in aid of The Prince's Foundation for Children & The Arts
16th June 2009
The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall and stars from the world of pop music and television today braved a typical English summer evening as they attended the performance of classic children's story Peter Pan.
Stephen Fry, Australian singer Natalie Imbruglia and American comedienne Joan Rivers dodged the showers as they attended the event at Kensington Gardens in London.
The Royal Gala Performance was in aid of The Prince’s Foundation for Children & The Arts which was founded by The Prince to give as many children as possible access to the very best of the arts.
The Prince who is President and Founder of the charity, said: "Every child whatever his or her circumstances should have the very best of dance, theatre, opera and music, our museums and galleries, art and literature."
JM Barrie's classic tale is being performed at the state-of-the-art Theatre Pavilion with the performance boasting a 360 degree projected scenic design and computer generated imagery (CGI).
The Duchess, who was wearing an Anna Valentine green chiffon dress and off-white silk jacket, paused to pat the head of the part-mechanised dog called Nana which is being used in the performance.
Peter Pan, one of the great figures of children's literature, is a boy who refuses to grow up and spends his endless childhood on the island of Neverland as leader of the gang of the Lost Boys.
David Poynor who plays Michael Darling, one of the children in the story, said: "It adds a bit of extra tension performing in front of celebrities, but it's a nice kind of tension.
"Peter Pan is quite a challenge because it's a story that everybody knows very well from their childhood but a lot of love has been put into this and it's a spectacular story."
A series of projectors beam CGI images onto the roof of the giant tent in which the performance is being staged.
It is hoped the CGI images will immediately transport the audience into the steamy jungle of Neverland or on a magical flight over London.
Abby Ford, who plays Wendy in the production, said: "Hopefully the audience will really be carried away by the CGI, the performance space is in the round so it's a very intimate venue.
"Hopefully they will feel engulfed when we fly because of the special effects."