Goodnight Mister Tom

Theatre Royal Nottingham
4 May 2011

I simply can’t watch the film version of The Railway Children without a deep emotional ache inside and an overwhelming desire to burst into tears at even the most trifling of scenes. I usually have to turn over and watch something more depraved like The Antiques Roadshow. Goodnight Mister Tom has the same effect.
Based on Michelle Magorian’s 1981 novel, Goodnight Mister Tom tells of William Beech, a young evacuee from London who ends up staying with village loner and widower Tom Oakley in the Dorset countryside. The boy arrives with physical and mental scars from a life with a cruel mother but soon learns to grow in confidence and at the same time enables Mister Tom to become more accepting of the outside world and his own tragic past.
The film starring John Thaw as Tom Oakley is now compulsive family viewing, with Thaw producing a pitch-perfect performance. If you don’t cry buckets at the end then you surely have a piece of flint instead of a heart.
This new touring production of Goodnight Mister Tom is a worthwhile addition to the much-loved book and film, with David Wood’s adaptation offering a straightforward and ungimmicky stage version of the story.
Oliver Ford-Davies (so good as Polonious in the RSC Tennant Hamlet) is a convincing Mister Tom, although I would have liked to have seen more of the character’s gruff and harsh exterior at the start of the play. A nit-picky criticism.
A simple set that lifts up ‘lap-top’ style to take us to William’s dingy London home and a very effective lighting and sound design that evokes the Dorset countryside and the claustrophobia of the capital’s air-raid shelters.
Sammy the border collie is brought to life by some effective puppetry courtesy of the team that brought War Horse to life.
I sat through this show sitting next to a group of real-life evacuees I have been working with on a separate project linked to the show. They thoroughly enjoyed it, with some moments bringing back some difficult memories of their own.
A very touching piece of theatre that is genuinely for all ages.