NEW YORK—With “For Peter Pan on Her 70th birthday,” playwright Sarah Ruhl has fashioned a paean to her mother, who once played Peter Pan many years ago in a community theater in Davenport, Iowa. Fashioned out of love, remembrance, and Ruhl’s imagination, the play unfolds to tell us a story about family and mortality.
In a prologue, Ann (Kathleen Chalfant) steps in front of the curtain to apprise the audience of what they'll be seeing. She mentions that when she originally played Peter, she briefly met Mary Martin, the original star of the famed Broadway production, as the road tour passed through Davenport. This was obviously a high point in Ann’s life. She is chatty and informal, setting the tone for what will follow.
