Synopsis
Programme
Impressions/Performances
Most people would probably be familiar with the story of "The Railway Children." Edith Nesbit's original childrens book may have been somewhat eclipsed in the best seller charts by the recent offerings of J. K. Rowling, but the 1970 film starring Jenny Agutter remains an oft repeated cult classic, and the scene near the end where the children's father emerges out of the mist and Roberta runs to him down the length of the platform is, for me at least, one of the most emotionally intense ever filmed. The story is a touching and evocative tale about a prosperous Edwardian family who are plunged into relative poverty after the father is falsely imprisoned - a fact which the mother carefully tres to hide from the children, telling them he is away on business. To cut costs, the family abandon their servant maintained town-house, in return for a simpler life in the country. The children soon take to their new surroundings, and the endless opportunities for adventure, but underneath it all they sense something is not right. The result is a story that explores and focuses on the anxieties and exhilarations of childhood, which it captures with great fondness and insight.
This dramatic stage version, written by Michael Kenny, closely follows the 1970 film version and is told largely in flashback, thereby allowing the actors to provide a narrative to some of the events and also permitting adult performers to play the children as they reminisce on their childhoods from some later time. Uniquely, the production is housed in a temporary theatre inside the former Eurostar terminal at Waterloo Station (those services now having transferred to Kings Cross/St. Pancras). Banked seating has been erected on former platforms one and two, facing the track. At one end of the performance space a footbridge spans the track, whilst at the other end there is a signal box and level crossing gate. A narrow ribbon of stage then runs the length of each platform next to the track, and there is also an acting area over the track itself, at the same level, provided by three bogies that can be pushed up and down the rails by men in boiler-suits. Props such as beds, tables and armchairs, etc., are arranged on these moveable stage sections to represent indoor locations before they are wheeled in. Cleverly, they are also used to represent train carriages with the occupants waving as they are wheeled away. As the story progresses, blasts of steam that travel the length of the track in time to thunderous sound effects suggest the passage of steam trains, and black gauze curtains pulled along the track provide a clever and effective tunnel as the action moves down onto the tracks.
Sarah Quintrell (Roberta), Louisa Clein (Phyllis) and Nicholas Bishop (Peter) are totally engaging as the three children, conversing intimately with the audience as they tell their story and act out their reminisences. Quintrell's performance as the sincere and nurturing elder sibling is particularly piquant whilst Clein's eager, but frequently misdirected, Phyllis is a sheer delight and so child-like that it is easy to forget she is old enough to have children of her own. Marshall Lancaster does a great job as Perks but the greatest sensation is caused by the arrival, just before the break, of the star of the show, an 1870's Stirling Single steam locomotive.
It is a story that, with it's emphasis on spacious outdoor locations should not work in a theatre. Technically it doesn't, it works in a disused railway station, but the point is that it does work tremendously well and provides a unique theatrical experience the likes of which you may never have opportunity to see again.
Verdict
A unique theatrical experience in a unique location. A treat for all the family. Unmissable.
Don Gillan - www.stagebeauty.net