The Little Paper

The girls and I had a real treat on Tuesday night when we headed over to the Roundhouse to see the latest Mirvish production, The Railway Children. Based on the beloved children's book by E. Nesbitt, The Railway Children isn't strictly speaking a children's play. I was forewarned that it might be too mature for my six year old but, as it turned out, she was delighted. We were ushered into a tented theatre built at The Roundhouse to accommodate Vicky, an 85-tonne vintage steam locomotive and found our seats on one side of a railway platform. The lights dimmed, the play began and, for the next two and a half hours, my daughters were utterly rapt.

This isn't a play that will appeal to very young children or to fast-paced video-philes. It's a subtly told reminiscence of a childhood summer in a country house by a railway with a plot that is driven in part by the injustices of Siberian prison camps in Czarist Russia and political prisoners in general. The politics of the play went over my daughter's heads and they were thrilled, rather than frightened, by a second act tunnel scene that might be a bit scary for younger children. There was quite a bit of charming audience participation and the stage business is worth the price of the ticket alone. Vicky makes her steamy entrance twice and while purists might call the train's part in the play more spectacle than theatre, it was pretty darn wonderful spectacle.

I would recommend the production if your child is of an age or maturity level to enjoy listening to a book like The Secret Garden or the original Peter Pan and can appreciate a story's quiet unfolding. If your son or daughter is under six, and is needs song, dance and action to stick to their seat, give it a pass. It's such a lovely production that it might even still be here when they are old enough to appreciate it. (Or maybe you could just go by yourself :-)