By Nikko Valdez

There’s an old theatre saying that “There is no business like show business” and I must add that there are no plays like Marian Catholic plays, the latest being “Peter and the Starcatcher.” 

The fall play, “Peter and the Starcatcher” ran over four days through the weekend. It was an absolute hit, especially Saturday, the night I attended. Saturday’s “starwatchers” were treated to a beautiful set and enough ambience that could take anyone away to Neverland.

“Peter and the Starcatcher,” the first play to be performed at Marian Catholic during the academic year since the emergence of Covid-19, is a prequel to the well-known story of Peter Pan. The story begins with meeting a somewhat familiar cast of characters like a few certain “lost” boys, “The Boy”, as he’s initially called, and a pirate sporting a truly dashing case of facial hair. As well as meeting some characters we might not have seen before like the Lord Astor and his daughter Molly Astor. The three lost boys are Prentiss, Ted, and the titular Peter who are played by Noelle Treadwell, Miguel Maninang, and Aaron Yock. The marvelous Black Stache was played by J Van Beest. Lord Astor was played by Marcus Bobbit, but Molly Astor was played in a duel role by both Anjelica Soto and Candice Brennan. 

Saturday’s audience filled the auditorium with laughter, seemingly getting every layer of the play’s sense of humor from witty to slapstick, as the plot whisked the audience to the ships of the Wasp and the Neverland. Both of the sets of each ship were incredibly well decorated and made. With hijinks ensuing from the beautifully high energy cast and a chorus that could have its own play the work as a whole had the crowd in stitches and on the edge of their seats. 

The play sets up some character defining moments. Like how Black Stache went from being a pirate that felt that something was missing metaphorically, a reason to be evil, to a pirate who was missing something literally, his left hand. Some others are how Peter is able to fly, why there are mermaids on Neverland, and even how Neverland got its name. 

Written by Rick Elice and under the direction of Ms. Hilger, “Peter and the Starcatcher” includes both laughs and heartfelt moments, brought to life through the performances from a cast that, in a world, was “stellar.”