What a glorious thing this production is. It's taken me a few years to get round to see it, I always seemed to be busy each time it relaunched but I'm so pleased I caught this cast change in the show's especially created space just behind Kings Cross.It's a delight from the moment you descend from street level into a foyer sales area that's been exquisitely dressed to look like an Edwardian railway station. When you move into the performance space itself you'll find yourself sat alongside one of two possible station platforms with the enticing prospect of a train passing through the middle. The station is teaming with actors as happy travellers who'll engage you in a friendly chat and who make the audience of all ages feel welcome and at ease in what could have felt like an intimidating space.
The action is played out on the narrow strips of platform alongside the pretend railways track on a series of little trucks that slide in, dressed simply as various locations or passing through to represent train carriages.
Mike Kenny's script perfectly introduces us to the world of the play helping even the tiniest audience members understand how an Edwardian childhood was a mixture of the familiar, squabbling with your brothers and sisters and different, having servants etc.
But the servants aren't there for long and our heart goes out to the family at the centre of the story who are plunged into poverty by the mysterious arrest of the father, necessitating a move to the countryside.
Unlike in a modern childhood the kids are encouraged in their fascination for the local railway and allowed to play there. Soon they're waving to and recognising the regular passengers as they speed past; which culminates, just before the interval, in them having to signal for the train to stop before it hits a landslide. It is at this point that we get the moment we've all been waiting for, the arrival of a life size steam train into the theatre. It's a beautifully conceived event which is full of wonder whilst not being too scary.
After the interval it's the resolution of the story that takes prominence and it's every bit as moving as the famous film.
The new, non celebrity cast are are excellent and kids around me of all ages were gripped throughout.
If you're looking for a wonderful piece of theatre for the whole family this is it. I was utterly besotted.
If you fancy a sharp, sophisticated 90 minutes of theatre which I guarantee will make you feel cleverer afterwards I whole heartedly recommend Constellations, Nick Payne’s look at the twists and turns a relationship can take.