Goodnight Mister Tom

This play by David Wood, based on the children’s book by Michelle Magorian, is both a tragic story and an uplifting one, dealing with the challenges faced by families in the Second World War.

The set comprised of Mister Tom’s home and was packed full of detail.  It was fabulous and the team responsible should feel very proud of their achievements. Costumes and make up were also excellent. The ladies looked lovely in their wartime outfits with beautifully styled hair for the period, so well done to the wardrobe team.  Lighting was also very evocative and worked well, especially the blue used in the nightmare scene.

There was a strong start to the play, with a long line of delightful children paraded in through the audience. Their costumes and props were wonderful and evoked the wartime period, with their pigtails and gas masks.

There was a very believable and endearing Tom Oakley. He started well as the slightly grumpy loner and slowly changed in character to become the much more likeable man who is proud to be called Dad by William at the end.

William Beech was played with sensitivity and grew in confidence throughout the play, echoing the journey of his character as he blossoms and begins to feel safe and loved by Mister Tom.

William’s friend, Zach was, in contrast, full of confidence and energy and beautifully suited the part.  He gave an excellent performance and worked well with William to show this unlikely friendship.  

I enjoyed the use of puppets by the children to represent the animals that William encounters when he first arrives. All of the children were very good in their various scenes.

The challenging role of Mrs Beech was handled well and the actress was not afraid to show the severe mental illness that Mrs Beech was trying to cope with in its ugliest form.

Likewise all of the various adult characters were well cast and kept the pace going along nicely.

Sammy the Dog was handled very professionally.  He was moved across the stage with minimum fuss so as not to pull focus from the actors and kept moving at all times in a very realistic way.

Direction was, on the whole, very good.  I liked the use of projections such as the churchyard stage left and the air raid shelter stage right, which provided a change of scene without the need for anything to be done. I also liked the use of the front of the stage for the digging scene.  However, the action was stopped in its tracks on occasions by scene changes.  It is far better, with some creative thinking, to keep any scene changes to an absolute minimum rather than leaving the audience waiting for the action to begin again in a new setting.  At the very least, the changes could have been accompanied by some appropriate wartime music, which would have bridged the gap between scenes.  That said, the scene changes were handled efficiently by the stage crew and the settings were always excellent. The nightmare sequence was particularly strong and there was a good pace to the scenes.

I am always very touched to see that a charity is supported during each production and collecting money for a local charity - helping victims of domestic violence- was an excellent choice.

All in all this was a very good production with some excellent performances by both adults and children.  There was a packed audience and they, quite rightly, enjoyed the show immensely.

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