Goodnight Mr Tom is well-known as being a fantastic book, with a lovely BBC adaptation. There’s always the worry, however, that a stage version of such a classic may fail to deliver the same charm and emotion.
On Saturday night, 14 pupils and a couple of staff ventured to Woking to see if the play really would be as good as we hoped. We were not disappointed. The wonderful countryside scenes were in stark contrast to the cold, dark London setting. We loved the youthful joy and innocence of the boys; we understood the destruction of buildings and minds that lived through the horror of war. Sammy, the dog, was most certainly a highlight – how did they make the puppet so realistic?
Our pupils were, as ever, exceptionally well-behaved and a pleasure to be with. Rye’s most memorable moment, albeit not ‘favourite,’ was Willie’s return to London; Jess thought the acting was excellent. The theatre reviewer of The Times summed up the play very accurately: “It ends as children’s theatre should: adults audibly snivelling and children breathlessly attentive.” A good thing Mrs Schutte bought the tissues…
