Giles Woodforde takes a sneak preview of the Oxford Playhouse's set piece show – Peter Pan in Scarlet – which reopens its new-look auditorium

It’s not every institution that is given a goldmine, but that’s what happened to London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital. In 1929, author J M Barrie gave all the rights to his phenomenally successful Peter Pan to this world-famous children’s hospital. Ever since, the hospital has received a royalty each time a copy of the book is sold or a performance of the play is staged.

Fast forward to the early 2000s, when Great Ormond Street decided to embark on a massive search for a Peter Pan sequel: publishers and literary agents worldwide were invited to put forward the names of writers to be considered for the project. The winner was Oxford University Press author Geraldine McCaughrean, who was chosen from a field of nearly 200 entries from around the world.

In the original classic story, Peter meets the Darling children in London and flies them to Neverland (by magic, not Ryanair). There they have a whole series of adventures, including a meeting with the dastardly Captain Hook. As Peter explains to oldest child Wendy, he ran away to Neverland because "I want always to be a little boy and to have fun."

In the sequel, Peter Pan in Scarlet, the Darling children, who are now adults with children of their own, are suddenly haunted by dreams of Neverland. They have no choice but to find their way back.

Peter Pan in Scarlet has now been adapted for the stage for the first time by Theresa Heskins, and is being directed by her in a joint Oxford Playhouse and New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme, production. Her Neverland involves a whirling world of silk drapes, up which the characters must climb towards the theatre ceiling. Several giant playground swings are involved too, which at one point combine into a violently swaying boat – those who remember rough nights crossing the Bay of Biscay might wish to look away at this point.

It all means that the actors have to learn circus skills with a vengeance.

“Theresa’s gone for silks, which I’ve never done before,” says Rebecca Killick, who plays Wendy. “We had quite a few classes before we started rehearsals, mainly to get our muscle strengths up a bit, and to master some of the basic moves. Then we had silk classes every day, and they exercised muscles I never knew I had before!”

But perhaps Rebecca found it easier than some to get into shape, for she used to represent Wales at gymnastics: “I used to compete a lot, and I still do it as a hobby. But I’ve never used my forearms so much in my life before,” she laughs.

In traditional stage productions of Peter Pan, it’s quite normal for Wendy and her siblings to fly out of the nursery bedroom window, and off to Neverland. But then they are usually very visibly attached to a safety harness. At what point in the audition process, I ask Rebecca, did it become apparent that circus skills would be needed?

“I asked at my first audition how the flying would be done, and it was explained that there would be silks and aerial and that kind of thing. Then at my second audition I actually had to do some silks for Vicky [Amedume], our choreographer. When I got the job, I booked in a few classes prior to rehearsal.”

But did Rebecca ever wonder what she’d let her herself in for?

“Yeah, actually! We had silks at a low height to start with, then we moved to a warehouse two weeks before the show opened: that was much more like the actual height in the theatre. But I still didn’t get that stomach-churn feeling. It was only about a metre higher in the theatre itself, but then I did begin to feel: ‘whoaa, this is a bit more scary!’”

This world premiere production of Peter Pan in Scarlet reopens the Playhouse’s new look auditorium tomorrow, and runs until September 4. oxfordplayhouse.com