The Railway Children

What an amazingly entertaining and delightful evening I had at this opening performance of such a well known and well loved story. The excellently directed action, wonderfully enacted parts by the three children, and tremendous team work by the backstage and technical crew made it a total success.

This comparatively modern adaptation by Mike Kenny had the three children, Bobbie (Tamsin Brazier), Peter (Reuben McGreevy) and Phyllis (Emily Glidewell) taking the role of narrators throughout the plot. They were not just narrating and enacting the parts but also had times when they had to interact with the audience. This was done with great confidence. Their delivery of the script was exemplary and also the little knowing side glances by two of them while the third was talking and their facial expressions of exasperation or annoyance enhanced the belief of the roles.

The adults in the cast were also well chosen and had plenty to do in the action of the play - Mother (Lizzie Gibson), Mr Perks (Martin Sworn), The Old Gentleman (John Shepherd) and Mr Szezcpansky (Jason Evans).  The actual story being unfolded during the evening, simple and straightforward as it is, needed these characters to be believable and genuine. This was the case. There were over twenty people on stage in total including some more adults and a few more children. The scenes at the railway station, with people departing and alighting became quite animated and real.

I always seem to comment on the way that the scenes are organised at this village hall and so although the stage itself is not huge, the use of the front and two sides extensions all add to the smooth running of the storyline. In this production, the very clever use of a folding door for the railway crossing doubles up to reveal the train carriage as it arrives at the station.  The arrival of the train and the return of Father (Chris Harris) was impressive.

Costumes for both the wealthier persons and less fortunate ones were in keeping with the period. The technical crew, aforementioned in the first paragraph were spot-on with all the lighting and sound cues, of which there were many during the performance.

It was just a joy just to sit back and relax to a simple story and appreciate the results of a lot of people’s hard work in putting on a brilliant show and then write and say a big thank you and congratulations to all.  

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