THE TITFIELD THUNDERBOLT. To 1 October.

Hornchurch/Tour

THE TITFIELD THUNDERBOLT
by Philip Goulding adapted from a screenplay by TEB Clarke

Queen's Theatre To 17 September then tour
Tue-Sat 8pm Mat 17 Sept 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 10min One interval

TICKETS: 01708 443333
Review: Timothy Ramsden 7 September

Branch line drama on the slow train.An aspirant playwright today might be better off writing novels or film-scripts, as theatres comb library shelves and old cine-scripts to adapt. Following fellow-Ealing Comedies Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Ladykillers onto stage is this 1953 film about a community fighting to save its rail-line.

Yet community action here is very different from today's equivalent. This is a cosy comedy, the wartime myth of England turned into a latter-day Age of austerity satire on officialdom, and a celebration of English traditional quirkiness in an apparently contented, hierarchic society. The thrusting entrepreneur Crump, sabotaging the railway to benefit his rival bus service, is the villain, supported by Loveday Smith's slippery urban type (not what she seems and no better than she ought to be) and more sympathetically (because it's filial duty and we can see he's a good lad at heart, in love with Smith's contrasting, English-rose vicar's daughter) young Harry Crump.

It's mystifying a stage version with 5 actors coping with many parts would be thought anywhere near as good as the film. Not small enough to make a virtue of, say, 2 people playing a cast of dozens, its attempts to make a gag out of similarities between an actor's different identities only introduce a dimension at odds with the main story.

Yet everyone brings expertise to this. Playwright Philip Goulding's used to conveying epics in a village hall (it's a pity he wasn't allowed to write an original piece for the Queen's). The cast work hard, Kate O'Mara giving her local Lady hearty goodwill, Paul Leonard finely contrasting the open manner of good-hearted serial drinker Valentine and the furtively scheming Crump.

And of course Bob Carlton throws every trick at the staging. But the real star is Rodney Ford's set, all Batsford Beauty of Britain' landscape and a central structure that transforms easily into station, pub or carriage, while reserving the big effect for the final train ride.

There was appreciative enjoyment among the audience for both acting points and technical ideas. But in a piece whose locomotive heroes are the Express and Thunderbolt it's a slow and placid ride.

Mr Valentine/Mr Vernon Clump/Mr Clegg: Paul Leonard
Lady Edna Chesterford: Kate O'Nara
Mr Blakeworth/Rev Sam Weech: Steven Pinder
Mr Dan Taylor/Mr Harry Crump/Mr Ruddock/Mrs Bottomley/Sergeant Wilson: Philip Read
Clifton/Miss Joan Weech/Miss Coggett: Loveday Smith

Director: Bob Carlton
Designer: Rodney Ford
Lighting: Chris Jaeger

2005-09-15 12:01:27