DARLING Comes to Connecticut Repertory Theatre in February

Connecticut Repertory Theatre will continue its 76th Anniversary Season with the world premiere of Harley Brooke Walker's imaginative puppet-forward adventure Darling, or A Guided Adventure in Dismantling the Patriarchy, running February 5 – 15, 2026 in the Studio Theater on the University of Connecticut campus.

Peter Pan and Wendy Darling are all grown up. What happens when their younger selves invite them to retell their stories, and how does retelling shift the fabric of Neverland? Taking inspiration from J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, Darling blends fairy tale, feminism, and puppetry with music, movement, and live actor performance. Characters come to life in amazing and surprising ways, highlighting Walker's artistic practice in dance, movement, and visual spectacle. In this Neverland, everyone can be part of the adventure.

“This show explore[s] how we can begin to pull threads, dismantle, and then reassemble a story so many of us know. By the end of our time together, we will have reimagined Peter Pan in a way that is entirely unique to this particular audience.”

– Harley Brooke Walker

Darling features puppet design by Harley Brooke Walker, scenic and lighting design by Cody Tellis Rutledge, costume design by Frederick Windross, technical direction by Hannah Trobaugh, and an original score by Phoebe Thompson.

CRT welcomes guest director Kate Brehm, a NYC-based puppeteer and movement director for this production. Brehm has directed puppets and movement for downtown, Broadway, ballet, and opera. She is the recipient of three Henson Foundation awards and is certified in the Margolis Method. She teaches puppetry, mask, and physical theater at Harvard University. She was recently published in Meaning Making in Puppetry: Materials, Practice, Perception. Select credits: (directing) The Poacher, The Eye Which We Do Not Have; (creator-performer) Things Fall Apart, Dark Space, The Poofs; (puppeteer) Dogugaeshi, Symphonie Fantastique, Rite of Spring, Petrushka, Arias With a Twist (Basil Twist); (design) The Odyssey (A.R.T.)