BANK OF SCOTLAND INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN'S THEATRE FESTIVAL 2004.

LORDS OF THE RAILWAY

North Edinburgh Arts Centre To 1 June then Tron, Glasgow 3 June 1.30pm 4-5 June 10.30am
Runs 1hr 10min No interval

TICKETS: 0141 552 4267 (Tron)
Review: Timothy Ramsden

A man's world playing boys' games - but to what purpose?Though computers may have replaced model railway controls for itchy junior fingers, there'll still be a lot of lofts and garages converted to track-layout for adults, mainly and inevitably the men who didn't grow up to be engine drivers. There's doubtless a gently sad comedy to be written about the obsession - that is, popular hobby - for adults.

It's one of the problems with this show from Germany's Theater Handgemenge that today's 6+ audiences en masse are not too likely to have fascinations maintained for over an hour by the track and trackside acessories (field of cows, station, house/church/factory) filling the stage. The other problem is a tendency for the 2 rail-encircled performers to be micro-managing their toy as they talk, somewhat excluding us outsiders.

There are comic moments, and, initially, there's the fun of seeing the rail in operation with diesel then steam locos (no actual steam, alas) at work. But the equation of the obs - hobby, with an image of nuclear family life from a 1950s consumer advert begs the matter of how ironic this is supposed to be, and how merely cosy, for - say - 6 or 12 year olds.

The fascination with the railway seems about to take over this pair's lives as they identify with model people on the platform. Or, is the point that it sparks imagination - leading to a search for a boy's lost toy dog, left on a Warsaw-bound train?

This story takes over the later part, without asserting an overall claim on the piece. It becomes one element over-dominating a central image which initially seemed to have wider potential.

Initially engaging, the performances lose some of the opening sharpness, including comic engagement of nodding heads with clicking signals, a 2-man street-band impression and parodies of old-style incomprehensible platform announcements. Perhaps it is too old-style in its assumptions of interest. At least, in this part of the world. Who willingly travels by, or trusts,the British railway system that much after all?

2004-06-01 12:28:20