Ever wonder what goes on in the mind of a playwright?
Our Author Insights series features personal essays from playwrights, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the ideas and experiences that shaped their work.
Below, read “Story as Healing and Imagination”, where playwright Sally Kinka reflects on her play The Edge of Neverland. You can also download a free PDF that pairs the essay with short, classroom-ready activities for students.
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Story as Healing and Imagination
Sally Kinka
The central idea of The Edge of Neverland is to illustrate the “power of story.” We are all hard-wired to relate to stories. It is more powerful than facts or arguments. It has the ability to immerse the viewer/reader/audience into its world and put them emotionally in action.
I witnessed this power firsthand, in my over 20 years as a professional interactive storyteller and puppeteer at various hospitals, mostly in Pediatric Oncology and Hematology units. There I watched terminally ill children smile for the first time in months, or participate in anything since beginning their hospital stay, while we recreated stories together. But it was the 7-year-old girl, who had gotten on stage with our traveling company, to improvisationally perform our show with us, at Georgetown University Hospital, that really showed me the power in its full force. Weeks after our performance she slipped into a coma.
After several more weeks she was no longer in the hospital. She had come out of the coma and had been transferred for recuperation. When asked if she remembered being at Georgetown, she said, “Not really. But I do remember going downstairs and being a princess.”
I realized that there was a way to purposely infuse a story of courage, determination and healing into the mind of a child who was struggling with a life-threatening illness.
Around that time, I had read about J.M. Barrie, the author of “Peter Pan.” He had had a brother who fell through the ice and drowned at age 14. I realized that he was the boy who would never grow up, the boy who would fly and never land. Where does the spirit of a child go when they are in a coma? This thought led to the creation of, “The Edge of Neverland.”
The two worlds of our new Wendy converge onstage, through telling dialogue and using a “split stage” in scene eight. Here we see the grotto in Neverland where Wendy and Peter are swimming, as well as the hospital waiting room, bringing these two worlds together. By the end of the play, Wendy understands that she has a choice to go back to her mother or stay in Neverland forever. She knows the choice is hers to make.
Ultimately, The Edge of Neverland is about the combination of the power of suggestion through story and the audience’s willingness to believe.