IN our own personal Neverland setting, it probably rains only when we're asleep.

No such luck for touring theatre company Heartbreak Productions, whose second open-air offering in Halifax within four days again fell victim to inclement weather.

The six actors recreating J M Barrie's Peter Pan in a corner of the Piece Hall – strangely, not on the main stage – were met with rainfall ranging from steady to near-torrential and had to compete with the sound of church bells and an ice cream van cooling its stock.

No expense appeared to have been spent on the set, with Peter Pan's Neverland playground, the Darling family's home and all points in between acted out on and around a small area of scaffolding bolstered by ropes, planks, metal boxes and pieces of piping.

Tinkerbell was literally a bell on a long stick and flying Peter was characterised by what appeared to be a rag doll on a slender tree branch.

But in his director's notes, Peter Mimmack explained this was a deliberate move – taking the audience away from the modern world of games console fantasy to childhood days when dens were made of "other people's castaway rubbish".

The stoic Heartbreak heroes – three men, three women, each taking several roles – battled on until Captain Hook was swallowed by a crocodile and the Darling children were reunited with their mother.

More childlike glee and dressing-up box than swish swashbuckling, it nevertheless seemed to appeal to the 100-strong, toddler-to-pensioner audience.