The Railway Children

How do you fit a Railway Station complete with Trains, a Tunnel, Cuttings, Footbridge, Platforms, a House and more into a small performance space, with a cast of 11, 7 children and 4 Engine Drivers! If you had come to the Angles Theatre Wisbech you would have seen what a creative and imaginative Director with a talented cast and crew had put together.

You had to see the set, as to try and describe it in words does not do justice to the design and flexibility. Two platforms at either side of the ‘stage’ with a railway track down the middle, a footbridge at the rear, a ‘train’ that came in and out transforming into a full stage and main performance space. The skill of this design was that with the talented cast carefully setting the scenes and creating the correct atmosphere this allowed the imagination of the audience to accept and see every scene in the correct setting, be it at home, at the station, in the railway cutting or the tunnel.

This play has a different interpretation whereby the children have grown up and are telling the story of what they did as ‘the Railway Children’ a very clever interpretation which made the telling of the story much more emotional. My feeling is that these three characters must be carefully cast, and we were not let down by Harriet Kember-Whitfield, Billy Garner and Rebecca Phillips Bartlett as Roberta, Peter and Phyllis respectively. These three brought out the different characters of the children with consummate skill and to hear Roberta’s child’s cry of ‘Daddy, Oh my Daddy’ at the end of the play tore at the heart strings of the whole audience. Their command of their characters, dialogue and interaction was just superb, they became the children that they were reminiscing about. I cannot discriminate between the three of you, well done.

The story does not revolve around just the three children, we have a Mother, Mr. and Mrs. Perks, the old Gentleman, The Doctor, Father, a Cook, Mr. Szczepansky and Jim (one of the Hounds).

The talent of the cast did not stop with the portrayal of the three children Roberta, Peter and Phyllis. Wendy Coles portrayal of Mother was handled with sensitivity, caring for the children, hiding the truth, being strong and yet weak with illness when needed, the anxiety about Father, her dialogue was strong and true as was her acting. She was complemented by Kevin Shippey who appeared so briefly as Father but doubled as the Doctor, a role that seemed to have been made for him, a great stage persona with the tenderness required when dealing with Roberta and the illness of Mother. Bob Kynnersley was the epitome of a kindly Old Gentlemen, a lovely re-assuring presence, well spoken, immaculately dressed and well spoken.

Owen Angier from being a smart butler became a disheveled Russian Émigré as Mr. Szczepansky, I’m no expert on Russian or French but he very confidently and clearly spoke these two languages, a small but important role and this was, as he always does, well portrayed and believable.

Gay Hoyle as Cook / Mrs. Viney added to the role call of minor characters who shaped their character with the correct interpretation of their role, a good solid performance and clear dialogue looking the image of a homely cook even if she had contretemps with the children. Daniel Pease as District Superintendent / Jim spoke clearly and enjoyed having a limp, keeping it up for his curtain call. I did have a suspicion that he was looking for someone in the audience at times though especially in early scenes where I believe he appeared as an older child.

And so we come to Mr. and Mrs. Perks, Lorraine Carver was an effective Maid however she doubled as Mrs. Perks and this is where she more than held her own, looking after the children, nursing the baby and matching her husband, hers was a nicely performed role. Ian Jones as Mr. Perks portrayed this Railway official to perfection, Grumpy  but also soft hearted, every mood was portrayed so well, he moved acted and spoke exactly as Mr. Perks should have, done nice and clear and with a clear view of how his character would be in real life. Well.

All the above were complemented by the seven youngsters who performed variously as the Perks’ children as well as the Hare and Hounds, they were very disciplined and happily performed their roles, very little dialogue, but what there was, was clear and well spoken.

Without the stage crew who were credited as Engine Drivers - Callum, Jacob, Catherine and Jasmin the set would not have worked, they silently and efficiently performed their role of moving the ‘train’ in and out, no hiccups, no problems. (If there were the audience didn’t notice them at all.)

The Direction was imaginative and very successful, Costumes, Lighting and Sound were all very good. We really believed that the trains were coming and going with the sound and lighting effects, especially when the children were on the footbridge and the waving of the red petticoats on the track, when Roberta fainted in front of the engine because of the light and sound one could have believed it had really only just stopped in time and of course Daddy coming out of the smoke at the end.

An excellent production, well done to all.

Thank you for inviting me to review this production.

Leslie

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