Review of The Railway Children at the Looking Glass Theatre, Northampton

I suppose it shouldn't have been a surprise that The Railway Children from Looking Glass Theatre was an awfully old fashioned and really rather quaint show. I know that at some point in the dim distant past I saw the original film version (all Jenny Agutter and "Daddy" etc), as I think definitely every one of my age will have seen that. However, the fact that of the audience, staggeringly only three were children suggests a little to me that the audience was either family and friends of the performers, or older people reminiscing over the story they remember from their younger days.

I have to confess that I didn't remember much of the story ahead of seeing it, however, this adaptation from James Smith (who also directs) based on the Edith Nesbit original brings the story and characters to life in a compact seventy-minute version. As has been common from recent years, the cast is formed from recent graduates of University of Northampton BA Actors course, all familiar to me (with one exception of Natalie Částka as Mother). This, of course, means that the whole cast is generally the same age, so challenges them from the outset to portray the multitude of characters age ranges.

As the children, and wonderfully likeable each of them, is Jenny Watson as Bobbie, Penelope May as Phyllis and Connor McAvoy as Peter. Their skills learnt on the course are well used and they create believable younger representatives of themselves. Jenny especially creates the role made famous on screen by Agutter her own and adds a surprising amount of character that at culmination reminds you that the story is quite an emotional one really.

The other end of the scale and tasked with the older roles are Natalie Částka and Hans Oldham. Hans is especially good in his multiple older roles. His Old Gentlemen turn was, in particular, a great little creation, full of the love and tenderness required for such a lovely old chap willing to help all.

Completing the cast and very much in his element of clowning is Lewis Hodson. There is no point in often pretending to be something else as a performer perhaps and Lewis has clearly found his niche, and I can't help but think it will in time take him far. Right from long before the play begins, he is pointlessly doing his station portering job through the church and adding crazy climbing antics into the bargain. Later as the "Russian" he continues to add silliness (coupled with crazy wig) into the piece. Playful, amusing and just plain daft, he is once again great.

The set from Paul Beasley is a typical touring one and more than adequately does the job, even if it at times shows is ricketiness when the cast is moving full sprint. That coupled with some nice music from Ian Riley makes a nicely pleasing, if simplistic play, very well performed. It will be quite fascinating to see if the much bigger budget version heading to Royal & Derngate later this year offers the same amount of charm.

⋆⋆⋆½

Performance reviewed: Saturday 31st December, 2016 (matinee) at St. Peters Church, Looking Glass Theatre, Northampton.

Details of Looking Glass Theatre can be found on their website at http://www.lookingglasstheatre.co.uk/

Review of & Juliet at Milton Keynes Theatre

First performed in 2019, & Juliet has become quite a global success, and now, as part of a UK Tour, it has arrived at Milton Keynes Theatre for a two-week run. Featuring a book by David West Read, it tells the what-if story of the survival of Juliet at the end of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet . Primarily a jukebox musical, it more specifically features the works of Swedish songwriter Max Martin (and friends, as the credits describe). The question is, does & Juliet provide more than the standard of many a jukebox musical before it, and does it honour the tragic tale from which it has sprung? Our story opens with William Shakespeare presenting his latest work, Romeo & Juliet , for the first time. However, when his wife, Anne Hathaway, learns how he intends the tale to end, she is away with his quill and planning on her reworking of the story. At the core of this touring production's success is Geraldine Sacdalan's powerhouse performance as Juliet. Her Juliet ...

Review of Northern Ballet - The Great Gatsby at Milton Keynes Theatre

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Review of The Rocky Horror Show at Milton Keynes Theatre

Richard O’Brien’s anarchic, surreal, and often incomprehensible musical, The Rocky Horror Show , has captivated audiences for over fifty years now. With this new tour, it feels as fresh and unpredictable as if it had just emerged from O’Brien's vivid imagination yesterday. While another review might seem unnecessary given the countless dressed-up fans who fill every theatre it visits, let’s go ahead and write one anyway. The Rocky Horror Show follows the adventures of Brad and Janet, a newly engaged couple. On a dark and stormy November evening, they run into car trouble and seek refuge at a mysterious castle reminiscent of Frankenstein’s. There, they encounter the eccentric handyman Riff-Raff, the outrageous scientist Dr. Frank N. Furter, and a host of other bizarre characters. What unfolds is a science fiction B-movie narrative that is at times coherent and at other times bewildering — yet somehow, that doesn’t seem to matter. I first saw The Rocky Horror Show in 2019 and exper...

A Small Mind At The Theatre

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