He had a heavy mustache and a pipe smoker’s percussive cough. He was short and slight, with bags under his eyes and a pale, protuberant brow, like a clever schoolboy who has stayed up late reading books under the bedclothes. Barrie: Jimmy to some of his friends, and, in his later pomp, Sir James. The play is “Peter Pan,” and, like its eponymous hero, it gives freakishly little sign of growing old. Most plays enjoy a fitful life, at best, but we can be fairly sure that this winter grown men will once again drop on all fours and work up a canine sweat, while grown women will crop their hair, pull on green tights, and turn into temporary boys. The man was an actor named Arthur Lupino, suffering for his art in a shaggy costume, and the dog was called Nana. Illustration by Gerald ScarfeĪlmost a hundred years ago, at half past eight on the evening of December 27, 1904, the curtain went up at the Duke of York’s Theatre, in London, to reveal, among other things, a man dressed as a dog. Barrie’s play, like its eponymous hero, gives freakishly little signs of growing old.
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