South Coast Ballet: Peter Pan

South Coast Ballet bring Peter Pan to the Congress Theatre on Saturday 28 November, a full-length ballet that's aimed at the whole family. It's the latest production from the Eastbourne company, which brings together young dancers from across East and West Sussex and gives them the chance to perform classical ballet in a professional setting.

The version they're staging isn't a home-grown one. It's the adaptation with music by Stephen Warbeck, commissioned by Northern Ballet and premiered on 18 December 2004 at the Grand Theatre in Leeds, with choreography by David Nixon and conducting by John Pryce-Jones. It runs for 122 minutes, so it's a proper evening's entertainment rather than a short piece. South Coast Ballet stages it by arrangement with Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity and Concord Theatricals.

If you've followed the company's work over the last few years, you'll see this fits right in with their recent run. They've put on The Tales of Beatrix Potter in 2022, The Nutcracker in 2023, Alice in Wonderland in 2024, and The Nutcracker again in 2025. That track record earned them 'Ballet School of the Year' for 2025/26 in the 'South of England' category at the Prestige Awards, and Peter Pan continues that thread of bringing well-known stories to the stage.

It starts at 6:00 pm, so it's an early enough start to bring the kids along without it becoming a late night. Tickets are from £20.