Theatre Horizon presents Rick Elice and Wayne Barker's 'Peter and the Starcatcher'

But director Matthew Decker’s inventive staging upends gendered expectations by casting women and nonbinary performers in central roles, reinforcing universality and inclusion within the fantasy genre. He further centers the action squarely around Molly Aster (Leigha Kato), the fearless teenage heroine who outruns or outwits all around her. Peter and the Starcatcher may be the origin story of everyone’s favorite Lost Boy, but Molly emerges as the play’s prime mover.

Other smart choices add edge to what could be fairly saccharine proceedings. The production opens in a wood-paneled room resembling a soup kitchen or homeless shelter, rendered with appropriate sterility by set designer Christopher Haig. A power outage forces those gathered to hunker down and pass the time telling tales by flashlight.

Ship-shape crew

Without a single set change, the drab surroundings fade into a seafaring story set during the height of the British Empire. The levelheaded authority figure (Johnnie Hobbs Jr., terrific as ever) becomes Lord Aster, a Victorian merchant; his assistant (Kato) morphs into his headstrong daughter. Riffing on the panto dame tradition, the gruff cook (David Bardeen) turns into genteel governess Mrs. Bumbrake, trading his bandanna for a makeshift bonnet.

Three scruffy teens (Ben Grinberg, Maggie Johnson, and Ciera Gardner) play the Lost Boys. In Peter Pan, of course, this is a famously fun-loving, eternally youthful crew. Here they bear the scars of mistreatment, malnourishment, and an uncertain fate.

The knowledge that these temporary actors may be homeless youths provokes a poignancy that might otherwise be missing. When Grinberg, the future Peter, bemoans that grownups always lie, it comes from a place of experience rather than petulance.

The production favors a do-it-yourself design that complements Decker’s interpretation. Mike Inwood’s lighting alternates between harshness and gloom, reminding the audience that not all moments are perfectly illuminated.

Choreographer Niki Cousineau uses the performers to create arresting tableaux, suggesting everything from ocean passage to actual flight through the skilled use of simple movements. Musicians Amanda Morton and Michael McCoy Reilly, who double as actors, underscore the action through piano and percussion without pulling focus.

Solid ballast

Some choices don’t work. Trey Lyford’s gritty Black Stache, the ur-Hook, maintains Decker’s vision, but the role requires a matinee-idol charisma Lyford cannot impart. And though Bardeen plays Mrs. Bumbrake to the hilt, casting a male actor in a gender-conscious interpretation feels like a missed opportunity to fully explore the fraught history of these characters. The second act, heavy on gimmicks and winking malapropisms, tends to drag.

Yet success comes where it counts most: the central performances. Grinberg charts his character’s journey from nameless, unloved boy to impetuous Peter Pan with equal measures wit and vulnerability. Peter learns the concept of courage from Molly’s righteous boldness, which Kato vibrantly communicates. Although Lost Boy Prentiss (Gardner) regularly whines that leaders must be boys, there’s no doubt who’s really in charge.

Molly embodies a quotation from the education activist Malala Yousafzai that Theatre Horizon included in the production’s press materials: “If one man can destroy everything, why can’t one girl change it?”

Here, one mighty girl faces down pirates and saves the day, emboldening all who come into her orbit. Talk about a woman who dares.