The Railway Children

The train takes the strain

THE RAILWAY CHILDREN

Waterloo Station

Director: Damien Cruden

Writer: Mike Kenny

Running time: 2 hrs. 20 mins.

E. Nesbit’s wonderful story as a play at the old Eurostar terminal at Waterloo and featuring a real train? I wasn’t sure if it would work. But it does!

With their father imprisoned on false charges of espionage, the Waterbury family in straitened circumstances are forced to move to 19th-centuryYorkshire where the only diversion for children is the railway. The tale unfolds as one of wide-eyed innocence and naive goodness triumphing over all the odds. It takes us back to a time when children had a sense of duty and kindness which meant they could be trusted and so find adventure on their own in the real world.

The family says its prayers and looks forward always with hope to the return of their darling Daddy. Enough nostalgia and hinted theology!

This production sees the children Bobbie, Peter and Phyllis played by adult actors (although there are children in the cast) and the audience sitting on both sides of the line — a setup which is used brilliantly by the actors. Pieces of moving staging are propelled up and down the track which means that we zip from scene to scene and keeps the story at high pace.

The dry ice effects, evoking scenes from Victorian platforms in the age of steam, are visual delights and used very effectively.

Take your children for a Christmas treat, but beware, Dads, you may have difficulty holding it together in the last scene as Bobbie shouts, ‘Daddy! It’s my Daddy!’