Review Summary
Average Rating:
4.5 out of 5 stars based on
4
review(s)
Latest Review:
"I thought it was really good - a great experience. The theatre made real use of the moving platforms and the acting was bril..."
Staged in a unique and special venue within London’s Waterloo Station, Edith Nesbitt’s The Railway Children opens its doors again in June 2011 after a successful summer in 2010. It promises to be a vibrant and fitting adaptation of the classic novel that has enchanted readers for over a century and provided numerous versions for the stage and screen.
The production will see an area of Waterloo Station transformed into specialised setting for the popular play, allowing the story to unfold on the disused track of the former Eurostar Terminal, with the audience placed on either side of the platform to witness the event. Audience members will also see a saloon carriage made famous by the original movie as well as a classic locomotive on display in the form of the Stirling Single from York’s National Railway Museum. The show, which itself is a production of York’s Theatre Royal, was originally staged at the museum, with the likes of Sarah Quintrell, Colin Tarrant and Marshall Lancaster taking on lead roles in 2008.
The Railway Children focuses on the young characters of Bobby, Peter and Phyllis, three children who are used to city life and whose lives are turned upside down when their father mysteriously disappears. Their story begins as they move with their mother to the Yorkshire countryside, where a new life awaits them in a rural setting and, as the story proves, this location will provide new dramas and adventures. They befriend a local railway porter, forming a close friendship that leads to some iconic moments that have become famous from screen adaptations over the decades. But whilst their new life takes hold, the question still remains concerning the whereabouts of their father.
The original version of the story was penned by Edith Nesbitt and published in a serialised form in “The London Magazine” during 1905, with a full published version landing on the bookshelves in 1906. Then, throughout the twentieth century it became a beloved piece of fiction as it was adapted for the screen six times. A 1970 screen adaptation brought it into the hearts of many homes and remains the most popular version to date and since then the show was re-adapted for the screen in a television movie in 2000, whilst the new stage adaptation has been adapted by Mike Kenny for the York Theatre Royal.
The Railway Children appears at Waterloo Station from 19th June until 4th Sept 2011.
