Neverlan (also called Never-Never-Land, Never Land and other variations) is the fictional island and dream world featured in the play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up by Scottish writer J. M. Barrie, his subsequent novel Peter and Wendy, and later works by others. While sojourning in Neverland, people may cease to age; therefore, Neverland is often seen as a metaphor for eternal childhood (and childishness), immortality, and escapism. In the earliest drafts of Barrie's play, the island was called Peter's Never Never Never Land, a name possibly influenced by the contemporary term for outback Australia. When the play was first performed in 1904, the island was referred to as the Never Never Land. In the 1923 published version, it was shortened to the Never Land. In the 1911 novel, it was spelled as one word: the Neverland.