YORK playwright Mike Kenny has adapted Peter Pan once before for the York Theatre Royal stage, back in the summer of 2011.

Only five years later, he returns to JM Barrie’s Edwardian tale of the boy who refused to grow up, this time at the invitation of Leeds children's theatre company Tutti Frutti for "a re-imagining of Peter Pan, as told by Wendy Darling", the girl who tried to grow up too quickly.

Directed by Tutti Frutti artistic director Wendy Harris, who apparently was named after Barrie's character, the play carries the distinguishing title of Underneath A Magical Moon as it opens its tour in the Theatre Royal Studio with its cast of Grace Lancaster, Jack Brett and Chris Draper.

“Peter Pan was one of the first real children's classics. Maybe the first children's classic play," says Mike. "I still struggle to think of anything that can top it. Everyone understands the feeling of not wanting to grow up. I loved it as a child, and my children loved it too. It's such a great piece, with such a broad sweep that it can stand various interpretations, and so I've delved into just one part of it."

Peter Pan was first performed in 1904, when the generation of boys that first saw it as children would be the generation of young men that fought and died in the First World War, notes Mike.

"When you hear Peter say, 'To die would be an awfully big adventure', it carries a real frisson. Wendy, however, has a different arc. She's recruited by Peter to be the mother to the Lost Boys, and she takes to it with gusto. I just wondered, if now, over a hundred years later, if that would be quite so straightforward for her," he says.

Feminist food for thought indeed. "Our version is the story you would recognise, but our Wendy is thinking about what she wants to be when she grows up. She's not quite so willing to stay at home telling stories to the children while Peter goes off and has all the adventures. She wants to have some adventures of her own.”

Wendy Harris's fascination with the name Wendy prompted the new version. ""To be honest, it was Wendy's idea to do this show because she's always had an interesting relationship with Wendy Darling as she was named after her – and Wendy hadn't existed as a name until J M Barrie invented it," says Mike.

"I jumped at the chance to write the script because it seemed a wonderful idea to re-tell it through Wendy's eyes, though my first draft was more like a post-modern PhD, which would work really well for the over-20s but was a bit dry for the kids, so I went back to it again and re-wrote it."

Looking at the original play, "Wendy is stuck in this role straightaway as a mother [to the Lost Boys], and they play the gender roles to the hilt: Peter Pan is fighting, being brave and saying death would be an awfully big adventure; Wendy is cooking and organising children," says Mike.

"In our version, she's wrestling with feelings of growing up and what growing up might mean, and we've set the story in today's world, being told now, with the Darling children having a sleepover in a Wendy house they've made in the back garden of their very ordinary house in the summer, where Wendy, Michael and John act out the story.

"Wendy is aware this might be the last time they do this, whereas the boys are just getting stuck in: Michael wants to be a mermaid; John still wants to be a pirate, but Wendy wants to be an astronaut."

Tutti Frutti and York Theatre Royal present Underneath A Magical Moon in The Studio, York Theatre Royal, until October 22, then on tour until December 31. Suitable for age three upwards. York box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk