Relationships, traditions and rules knit the family together after Peter Pan leaves for Neverland, but in Ivan Faute’s The Darling Children, the ties that bind weave a noose that chokes out normalcy and hope.

Director Stephen F. Murray draws out an assortment of characters that redefine “dysfunctional” as they choose to remain tethered in an unhealthy world while passing up opportunities to cut the cord and escape.

Father (Dan Taube) is bound, literally, in the corner; Mother (Erin Robinson) is chillingly perky. Peter's sisters weave a web of unhappiness: Kathleen (Tiffani Moore) passes up a chance for love with Michel (Nick Lake) who inexplicably gets roped in to the darkness; Aurora (Carrie Hardin) shows a spark of rebellion, but demurs; Marianne (Lindsay Weisberg) drips with venom. Mother (Erin Robinson) is chillingly perky.

Faute doesn’t define reality. Will Peter return? Will he be able to fix everything? Does Peter even exist or are his letters forgeries written in a sadistic effort to enflame, then snuff out hope? Nothing is certain except that we understand why Peter would have run away.