REVIEW: Wendy and Peter Pan – at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, until Sunday, January 31, 2016.

EVERYONE is entitled to a little fantasy in their lives. To look at the stars and hope to find adventure.

For some they may well be looking for their own Neverland - that far off place where children never have to grow up. But, in reality, we know responsibility is just around the corner as it is here for Wendy.

One moment she’s 13, the next she’s thirty - a touch flirty and then shy and a wee bit gawky, but she is the one who really grows up in this magical playground.

This second reworking-cum-revival by Ella Hickson of JM Barrie’s classic story has a quite liberal sprinkling of fairy dust which kept an audience of all ages spellbound.

Once again she follows the original theme of two years ago of girl power - with Wendy, after initial wobbles, becoming the heroine. She is the driving force for good against evil and mending human relationships.

Once again it’s all delightfully controlled by director Jonathan Munby who deals with the darker moments quite tastefully.

Hickson also stays with an additional Darling child, a brother Tom, who dies at an early age. This was something Barrie himself experienced, and while the Lost Boys of Neverland may never grow old they have been touched by death and death, as time marches on with that clock ticking away in Crocodile’s jaws, are relevant components in this famous tale.

Mariah Gale takes on the role of Wendy and, if you’ll pardon the pun, turns in a storming performance soaring across a variety of emotions.

Has she really got to be so sad or angry at life and those around her, and does she have to be a playmate, possibly a mother to the Lost Boys or even a pirates’ prisoner? She nails them all and how!

Around her were any number of polished performances in the all-adult cast… not just fairy dust here but stardust and numerous magical moments.

Pick of these were Charlotte Mills, amusingly and outrageously reprising her role as Tink - a fairy with considerable attitude! Could she have been from Essex? While there are intriguing moments with James Corrigan and Jordan Metcalfe, Wendy’s brothers, John and Michael, and then there was the relationship between Hook (Darrell D’Silva) and First Mate Smee (Paul Kemp), who wanted to be a bit more than a mate in a country cottage for two, a situation which elicited a chortle or two.

Another engaging performance was Rhys Rusbatch’s Peter, especially with that warm Welsh lilt. Perhaps he ought to have been Peter Tonypandy?

Elsewhere on stage the lithe-limbed Arthur Kyeyune was not only Doc Giles and a Shadow, he was was also a menacing and mesmerising Crocodile, stalking the set and even limboing beneath the gangplank of the mysterious and unearthly pirate ship, the Jolly Roger. Movements that would be enough to bring a tear to the eye had anyone else tried it…

And there was more fun too with Martin, the pirate who didn’t want to be one. Adam Gillen, a recognisable face from the tv series Benidorm was in fine form in this role and Mimi Ndiweni’s powerful Tiger Lily also caught the eye.

The set of 2013 raised the bar by quite a few notches but the high standards have been maintained by Colin Richmond who has kept faith with the superb pop-up Lost Boys hideaway, ethereal nights and a ghostly pirate’s ship, and all enhanced by the aerial sequences.

Overall it’s a busy and bustling two hours and 10 minutes. It holds the attention - needed when your audience probably encompassed ages from eight into the eighties. The action is non-stop and its glorious fun just to get a glimpse of Neverland even though it will alway be out of reach for us mere mortals.

That is unless we’re lucky enough to get a night-time visit from Peter and his Shadows. But your own night-time visit to the RST should be just as worthwhile.