The Railway Children
Dates: 4 July-4 Sept
Price: £20.50-£45.50 (includes a £1 donation to Railway Children Charity)

The Railway children have moved into Waterloo for the summer

Our Verdict:

“Tinkering with a national treasure is dangerous business but the Theatre Royal York’s stage version of the Railway children does it magnificently.

The set has been created at one end of the platform of the disused Eurostar terminal in Waterloo. You enter a bustling Edwardian station – bridge across the track, signal box, station master’s room, porters, a hubbub of passengers – and take your place on tiered seats on each side of the platform. There are no seats at either end and the scenes shift in and out on the track between you, so the feeling of constantly moving trains pervades the whole structure of the show. This is helped by excellent sound and visual effects, lots of clattering, juddering noises and billowing smoke.

The story unfolds partly in real time and partly through the children (now grown up) remembering the summer when they had been ‘the Railway children’. They slip in and out of their narrator/protagonist roles with ease and the technique works, avoiding the need for irritating child actors and allowing for some distance from the story. They, and we, can look on it with a fondly indulgent eye.

The adaptation is faithful to the E Nesbitt book. All the key scenes are here. The first half ends as the girls take off their red petticoats to warn the oncoming train the siding has collapsed. Roberta stands in the tracks, there is a wonderful roar, a mass of steam and the original Victorian steam train puffs into the stage. Roberta faints and we all cheer.

The story is simple. A comfortable and loving family put up with (some) hardship; they make mistakes and learn about other people’s feelings. Mother saves the Russian poet and speaks passionately about false imprisonment. There are some unlikely co-incidences and good triumphs in the end. But this is much more than a nostalgia-fest. The acting is solid. Phyliss and Peter are particularly good and Marshall Lancaster (the one who is/isn't dating Shaz in Ashes to Ashes) puts in a good turn as Perks. The intimacy of experience that only theatre can bring works its magic. It is funny, touching and very moving.

And, yes, Bobbie runs through the steam to her 'Daddy, my Daddy' at the end. And yes I was watching it through my tears. This is obviously because I am a middle aged softie but Jemima (aged 8, about the right age), though dry eyed, was wowed. "Mummy, that was brilliant." 

If you see one thing with your children this summer, see this (and I have seen Toy Story, which is very good)."

Emily Turner 

Click here to book tickets

Venue Details:

Waterloo Station
Entrance is near the corner of York Road and Mepham Street
Tel: 0871 297 0740
Website: www.railwaychildrenwaterloo.com

General Information:


Map: