J.M. Barrie's returning lost play gives us an early glimpse of Peter Pan

James Matthew Barrie’s first play, written when he was 17, was initially branded a “grossly immoral” production. Those who liked it were “the irreligious, the frivolous, the giddy”, according to the Rev D L Scott, a church minister, writing in a local newspaper. Performed in 1877 at Dumfries Academy in south-west Scotland where Barrie was a pupil, other responses were more positive, to be fair.