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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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First class return just the ticket The
Titfield Thunderbolt The Grange
Players Grange
Playhouse, Walsall ****
THERE are so many eye-popping sets and props in this clever production
they almost divert your attention from the quality of the cast in Philip
Goulding's adaptation of the 1953 film. Wooden
steam trains, a passenger carriage, an impressive steam roller and a bus
were, in the main, designed and constructed by the play's
director-producer Martin Groves and his team, as well as the station and
platform plus the bar of the Pig & Whistle pub. The vehicles are neatly
manoeuvred around the stage in amusing fashion by the players, and they
even manage to create a realistic rain storm at one point. At times the plot is a little
far fetched, but the enthusiasm of the cast carries the action through
the occasional blips to such an extent that they earn cheers at the end
of the trip. Julie Lomas is outstanding as
Lady Edna Chesterford who leads the campaign to prevent British Rail
closing the branch line serving the fictional village of Titfield, and
she has excellent support from Gary Pritchard, the railway enthusiast
vicar, Sam Weech, delighted to have an opportunity to drive the train
when the villagers win permission to run the service for a trial period. But they have to cope with
opposition from Vernon Crump (Robert
There's a brilliant scene when
Whitehead - playing a bit of a country bumpkin - pops up as a policeman
to arrest his dad while considering suggestions that he reminds people
of someone. Fine performances, too, from
David Stone as wealthy villager and champion boozer Walter Valentine who
bankrolls the experiment on being told that the train can run a bar
which would be open daily before the local pub. Kerry Frater is sound as
Welshman Dan Taylor, a former railway employee, and Christina
Peak excels as Joan Weech, niece of the vicar and love target for
sometimes hapless Harry. The play offers numerous
opportunities for audience participation, particularly at the public
meeting staged in the village hall and when various receptacles - a
chamber pot, teapot, biscuit barrel and tin bath - are passed from the
rear of the auditorium to the stage to be poured into the train's boiler
after the scheming Vernon Crump has blasted the line's water storage
tank with his shotgun. Funny scenes, too, as the
train containing passengers pulls into the station and the bus shakes up
its customers driving over a hump-backed bridge. Oh, and on a couple of
occasions a spectacular giant cockerel darts across the stage and
through the central aisle of the theatre. Why? I don't know, but it
raised a laugh. Every ticket has been sold for
The Titfield Thunderbolt which finally reaches the end of the
line on Saturday night 28-05-11 Paul Marston |
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