Goodnight Mister Tom

In early September 1939, the government gave orders for the evacuation of school children from large cities around the UK. The children assembled at railway stations - they didn’t know where they were going or who was going to take care of them.  As they said goodbye to their families, many of them were to see the countryside for the first time. They very often came from the poorest and most overcrowded parts of the country, were ill-fed, poorly dressed and a number were unable to read or write. In some cases, they were starved of love, basic care and abused both physically and mentally. 

 Goodnight Mister Tom tells the story of one such young boy, William Beech. A very demanding role for a young person having to deal with a rollercoaster of emotions,from being cared for by a kind stranger through to bullying by the local school children and then having to go back to an abusive mother. Alex Evans was brilliant in this role and gave an outstanding performance.

Mr. Tom Oakley, played by Richard Wilshaw, had copious amount of dialogue and very rarely left the stage. Richard excelled in this role. A widower living on his own for many years, with only his beloved dog, Sammy,  to keep him company, he suddenly has a young boy, William, to take care of. How would he cope?  Here we see Mr Tom growing to like having William around and showing him the kinder side of life. Some very moving dialogue here between them.

It was great to watch three of the young actors taking on roles as the village children:John Wilshaw (George), Jasmin Davis (Carrie) and Saffron Nicholas (Ginnie). They all excelled in their various roles. Likewise, Christopher Thorpe (Zach), another evacuee from London.  He made it his ambition in life to make everyone happy and so became great friends with William. Christopher played this role with the exuberance that was required to make this character work. Another brilliant performance.  

They all worked very well together and I loved the picnic and drama scenes. 

An additional nineteen characters in this production were performed by only seven actors. They were kept very busy and all did great in their roles.

Last, but not least, Sammy the dog, controlled by puppeteer Leah Keys. This truly was an amazing performance with Sammy an important and essential part of the story. Sorry, Leah, but after a short while we didn’t look at you as our eyes were only on Sammy.

Congratulations to director Liz Cooper, assistant director Katie Howard and everyone involved with this very fine and well-cast production. There were lots of very moving and up-lifting scenes, all of which worked beautifully. The minimalist set, sound effects and lighting enhanced the change of moods and location.

 It is not easy to produce a play from a well-known story, but Rotherham Rep handled it very well. It was lovely to watch all these young actors taking on demanding roles and I hope to see them again on stage very shortly.

After being rescued and officially adopted, the best line in the play was the final one when young William called Mr. Tom “Dad”. I think that more than one or two members of the audience had a tear in their eyes.

Thank you for the invite and an evening much enjoyed by myself and the audience. It was wonderful to see a full auditorium.

 

Sue Cox

 

N. E Region Drama Rep.

 

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