THE RAILWAY CHILDREN adapted by Dave Simpson. New Victoria Theatre to 12 January

Newcastle-under-Lyme

THE RAILWAY CHILDREN
by E. Nesbit, adapted by Dave Simpson

New Victoria Theatre To 12 January 2002
Runs 2hr 10min One interval

TICKETS 01782 717962
Review Timothy Ramsden 17 December

Familiar story chugs along nicely, helped by a new local habitation in the Potteries.What's a go-ahead theatre in the round like the New Vic doing with a tale of nice Edwardian misses forcibly slumming it up in the Midlands? Yet another example of hard-headed theatrefolk going soft at Christmas?

Chris Monks' production plays down the book's urban mission potential; the differences between the erstwhile well-to-do family forced out of London by their father's wrongful arrest, and the local lads and lasses, is limited to a few differences of voice and manner. By employing the station-master Perks (the ever-reliable Paul McCleary) as part-time narrator, Simpson's adaptation has a grounding in good-sense and amiability. Even his habit of doing a swift ogre impersonation at times adds to Perks' avuncular quality.

It fits well into the production's main idea, to link Nesbit's tale with Staffordshire's railway past. This is less the glories of Crewe junction than the branchline complexity of the Knotty, the much-loved North Staffordshire Railway which served local travel needs between 1848 and 1923, and provided the subject for one of the (old) Vic's most celebrated local documentaries. And as The Railway Children itself became a popular film in the seventies, Monks treats his show as a film, with opening and closing credits besides various filmed sequences along the way.

So we first meet Jeffery Dench's Old Gentlemen smiling and waving enthusiastically from a first-class carriage on screen. He is the figure who provides surrogate paternal relief when money must be spent. In return, he is saved from an accident when there's a landslip by the children's middle-class initiative. There are times it's surprising the locals get a look in on their own landscape.

A series of incidents rather than a developing story, the nearest to conflict comes when some adult finds it hard to accept the children's benevolence. It's all sturdily acted, though some multi-role cameos are less successful than others. The stolidity of McCleary's station-master is neatly offset by the ever-reliant Englishwoman of Carol Noakes Mother. Jeffery Dench makes beaming benevolence realistic, setting the tone for this jolly nice Christmas show.

Phyllis: Lydia Baksh
Old Gentleman/Mr Roach: Jeffery Dench
Peter: Gregor Hendserson-Begg
Mr James/Mr Szczepansky/Superintendent/Daddy: David Kendall
Mrs Walker/Mrs Herring/Mrs Perks: Kate Layden
Mr Perks: Paul McCleary
Roberta: Tess Mawle
John/Dr Forrest: Laurence moran
Mother: Carol Noakes
Alfred: Tom Shingler/Jack Scott
Edith:Samantha Cantliff/Robyn Mather
Bert: Tobias Adams-Heighway/Sean Conway
Emma: Hannah Morris/Alexa Fryer
Joan: Polly Shingler/Sally Ann Keeler
Billy/Jim: James Buckley-Thorp/Conor O'Callaghan

Director: Chris Monks
Designer: Lis Evans
Lighting: Jo Dawson
Sound: James Earls-Davis
Cameraman/VT Editor: Ray Johnson

2001-12-28 11:13:43