Goodnight Mr. Tom

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SRD
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Goodnight Mr. Tom

Post by SRD »

To the Theatre Royal Bath last night to see 'Goodnight Mr Tom', not a dry eye in the house, and many standing, at the end, including the pillocks who arrived late and clambered over Judy's wheelchair to get to their seats, tried to film the set until stopped by stewards, then decided they needed a pee half way through the first half involving more clambering and finally arrived late back after the interval.
Good performances from David Troughton as Mr Tom and the lad who played Willy. The puppetry from Elisa de Grey as the dog Sam was excellent although she too often upstaged the real action. Other performances varied from good to wooden, with usually the younger members of the cast coming out on top although Simon Markey was fun as the village doctor, puffing at cigarettes throughout, but it must be difficult for actors to make much from the minor parts. It's a shame that the play didn't give Willy's mother more opportunity to build her character.
It's a difficult book to dramatise like this, too long with too many scenes, thus the situation at Willy's home before his evacuation wasn't shown, so we were unable to place his early fears in context, whilst the scenes of his relationship with Zach were stretched beyond the plot's requirement. And the young woman who turned from an utterly lovestruck teenager in the early part of the story to a cheerful, pragmatic, widow with a child a few months later was completely unbelievable.
The simple, quick change, set worked for me in the first half but the clanking grinding machinery that brought forth the Deptford hovel was completely OTT. The lighting was pretty good, but once again OTT regarding the hovel.
For me the play's about the triumph of hope over experience with a golden dawn at the end (maybe, after all the war's still going on), which always depresses me but I'm just a miserable old git, most will see it as Pilgrim's Progress type of story with everyone coming out at the end better, stronger and happier from their trials.
Children are like Slinkys - not much use for anything, but it always brings a smile to your face when you throw them down the stairs. Chinchilla
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Little John
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Re: Goodnight Mr. Tom

Post by Little John »

Nice review. Specially the bit about the pillocks!

:-D
Yes this is the real "Little John" (or it could be "colin")
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marymary
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Re: Goodnight Mr. Tom

Post by marymary »

We loved Goodnight Mr Tom as a book when my daughter was little. When the TV version came out my daughter watched it many times crying at all the usual bits. I would like to have seen a live version, but not with pillocks in the audience.

It is a well known stage saying that there are "no small parts". I have seen some am dram actors who have stolen the stage with a 3 minute scene. One memorable one was an actress singing some negro spiritual in Show Boat.
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SRD
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Re: Goodnight Mr. Tom

Post by SRD »

There's a bit of a difference between someone putting in an amazing performance in a small part and someone who consistently distracts the audience's attention to the detriment of the plot.
Children are like Slinkys - not much use for anything, but it always brings a smile to your face when you throw them down the stairs. Chinchilla
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