Audience: KS3
Subject: English / Drama
Topic: Literature, Relationships, Bereavement, Edwardian, England, Children, Social Class
Question: Why will ‘Peter Pan’ never grow up?
Author: Elizabeth Doyle
Description
Peter Pan is a play that has had a significant cultural impact since its first production. It became a novel, and subsequently has been revived and reinterpreted in a range of genres, including film, television, ballet etc. The purpose of this exercise is for teachers of Key Stage Three to enable students to consider and analyse the source material, and to explore many of the themes and ideas (some of them quite dark) that are raised by this story. This will hopefully lead to discussions about the many remakes and re-imaginings of the story (e.g. E.T.) that students will already recognise, and more able students may be able to link this to issues related to family relationships, bereavement and the pressures of social class in Edwardian England.
(NB this resource could be accompanied by a viewing of the film ‘Finding Neverland’ (2004: Directed by Marc Forster)