Goodnight Mister Tom

Director Meg Bray certainly put paid to the age-old warning never to act with children or animals. The plentiful children held the stage and interacted effortlessly and sympathetically with the adults, while Sammy, Tom’s faithful dog, created by Lucy Boatswain and skilfully handled by Lulu Burr, had a loveable nature with an endearing expression as he followed Mr Tom and William around.  Very realistic.

Ewhurst Village Hall has very restricted space backstage and they are to be commended for making it all look so effortless.  With current regulations regarding safeguarding and chaperoning, and with the large number of children involved, it was no mean feat.

I liked the cover of the excellent programme – Tom with his arm around William and Sammy faithfully alongside, in silhouette, sitting on a bench.  The play’s title written on a luggage label, scenes of war with a Spitfire and barbed wire and shadowy village cottages, all added to the mood.  The making of Sammy the Dog by Lucy Boatswain was enlightening and highlighted Lucy’s creative talent.  Sammy’s endearing face and actions were irresistible and elicited lots of sympathetic ooohs and aaahs.  The addition of black & white photos from the 1940s lent poignancy, particularly the one of the multitude of evacuees to Ewhurst itself, pictured in 1945. 

Cleverly designed set with William’s bedroom on one side and an exterior on the other.  Excellent pictures were projected on to the backdrop, changing with each scene – the Village Hall, the shop, the library.  Tables and chairs came and went effortlessly and genuine props such as little suitcases and gas masks, were well sourced.  Appropriate lighting was never intrusive and the inclusion of a variety of Vera Lynn songs was nostalgic.  Particular congratulations to Gladys (Lucy Burr) for her unaccompanied song The White Cliffs of Dover which could have been Vera herself.  It was clear that the musical numbers had been meticulously researched and certainly enhanced our enjoyment, as the Director hoped it would.  What a task to source the huge number of authentic costumes for the adults and the children.  I understand they came from a variety of outlets, from online markets to charity shops.  Congratulations to Angela D’Cruz-Anderson and her assistants for the enormous number of hours they must have devoted to searching, mending, altering.

Appropriately the production opened with the audience on their feet singing the National Anthem.  Having become accustomed to singing “God Save The Queen” for so many decades, it was fitting to be reminded that people would have been singing “God Save The King” – as we did – during the period in which the play was set.

The story follows a hoard of young evacuees from London who arrive in a Suffolk village to be placed with host families, some excited, some nervous, some decidedly reluctant.  A tearful young William Beech (Freddie Birley) is the last to be chosen and ends up with the elderly widower Tom Oakley (Barry Harrison Fudge) who lost his wife and child to scarlet fever a good 40 years before and is something of a recluse.  At first they are both a bit apprehensive but gradually develop an affectionate friendship.  William overcomes his nervousness while Tom discovers that William comes from an abusive home where his single mother cruelly beat him and instilled in him the virtues of reading the Bible and the threat of hell, fire and damnation for the slightest transgression.  Both performances were superb – William all nerves and suspicion to start with, Tom uneasy and reticent, but both gradually growing in confidence with each other, culminating in trust and real affection.  There were some touchingly moving scenes, particularly William’s first night when Tom persuades him not to sleep under the bed, tells him stories from the Bible and points out the chamber pot in case he needs it during the night!  The wise, old-school, avuncular Dr Little (Tony Gauvain) reassures Tom that William only needs time to adjust and that all will be well.

As William can neither read nor write, he is put into the bottom class at school and is initially bullied by the other children but under Tom’s tuition he soon progresses and demonstrates a talent for drawing and painting, and dramatics.  Tom gives him his late wife’s art materials to encourage him.  William’s particular friends are a Jewish lad Zach (Jenson Parsons), George (Harvey Norton Porter) and twins Carrie and Ginnie (Isla Cooper and Florence Ansell).  All four of them were terrific in their roles and interacted well with each other and with the adults, Zach in particular, full of bravado and optimism, with boundless energy.  Their play-acting in the school play with Zach as Long John Silver sword-fighting with William was full of fun and led to a touching moment after Zach is killed in the Blitz and William takes on his role as Silver, wearing his colourful pullover.  All the supporting characters were well cast and kept up their performances throughout.

William returns to London to help his supposedly ill mother Mrs Beech (Tracey Campbell) who is in fact having a baby and unable to cope.  Her unkind and abusive treatment of William is heartbreaking and he is miserably unhappy.  He clearly loves his new baby sister whom he tries to care for.  Tom is suspicious that all is not well and travels to London to search him out.  William is discovered abandoned, locked in a cupboard with the dead baby in his arms, which pushes him into a nervous breakdown.  Confined to hospital and with the threat of an institution hanging over him, he suffers terrible nightmares which were very well depicted with ghosts haunting him, flashing lights and menacing music.  Tom kidnaps him and returns to the country, where they learn that his mother has committed suicide.  Tom succeeds in adopting him, much to William’s delight.  The most touching moment was when William turns to Tom before rushing off to join his friends and calls him Dad.  There can’t have been a dry eye!

This wasn’t an easy play to put on and once again Meg Bray has excelled herself.  Under her direction the cast, without exception, were superb.  It was poignant, amusing, sad, cruel, realistic.  We were drawn into the story from the beginning and left with a feeling of optimism that in the end, whatever the circumstances, good will prevail.  Hugely enjoyable.  Well done.

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