Good Night Mister Tom

This story about a young evacuee and a grumpy old countryman has given much enjoyment to countless readers and was a huge success as a television drama starring the late John Thaw. To tackle this adaptation for the stage in the wake of such a nationwide coverage is indeed a daunting task, however Whitby Amateur Dramatic Society rose magnificently to the occasion and proved to a capacity audience the astonishing depth of talent which they possess.

Ivan Hall as Tom Oakley the bad tempered old man still mourning the passing of his wife and with such a big chip on his shoulder put his heart and soul into this part and showed a very good understanding of the character giving a performance which slowly changed as he began to take his evacuee lodger into his life. His entire sympathy with the part was a good exhibition of stage craft and interpretation.

 Twelve years old Sonny Wilson playing the part of William Beech, the evacuee was a revelation as he showed a good command of moods, playful with his friends, angry with those who wished to put him in a children’s home and fear when he was undergoing night mares. He had obviously taken notice of the director and showed that he is no doubt a star of the future with his mischievous looks and good acting ability.

Zach, the son of theatrical parents, played by thirteen year old Tomi Daynes-Hall,( a young girl ) kept the audience in fits of laughter throughout the evening with his wonderful send up of many well known Shakespearian lines and showed great skill in rendering a song and dance routine. Falling victim on his return to London by a German bomb his death scene was masterful. The audience were stunned!

The trio of locals, who became Williams friends, Carrie, Ginnie and George ( Ruby Moss, Rosie Hodgson and Finley Miller ) were well cast and did justice to their roles bordering on the sympathetic to outright cheek. Again they had been well drilled by the director and gave good performances without going over the top. Well done!

The rest of the cast with named parts ( another twelve covering seventeen characters) were very solid in their cameo performances and added to the overall picture. No one stepped out of line and it was pleasing to see that those who had more than one part gave us a different character for each. So often we do not get this clarity.

Kenzie Greenwood, as William’s mother, Mrs Beech showed a remarkable grasp of a mentally disturbed and biased woman who could not understand anything but her own ideas even though they were a complete opposite of the truth and her treatment of William on his short return to London prior to his reunion with Mister Tom brought this out

One other special mention must go to Fiona Sellers. She had the dubious role of being Mister Tom’s dog, Sammy. However this was played using a life sized model of a dog used in the fashion of the Westend version of Warhorse which people manoeuvred the animals around the stage. Fiona was brilliant with this and we were almost convinced that Sammy was real. The movements of tail wagging, jumping up and down, the barking and all other things associated with dogs was first class.

The costumes were very authentic with good attention to detail, make-up and hairstyles. 

The set was simple and was used throughout to portray varying scenes from Tom’s house, London stations, the hospital and many more. This was well adapted and was aided by some slick scene changing.

The lighting was also good, in that to highlight various scenes, pool lighting was used effectively and in particular the scene when Zach was killed by a bomb was of top order.

It was good to see so many young members of the society on stage playing the parts of the village children and other evacuees. They were well drilled and gave another dimension to the show.

Katrina Stead, the director had put so much hard work into this production, to ensure a complete show from curtain up to the final curtain and it was her attention to the fine details of the show that made it into a wonderful success.

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