IT IS difficult to recreate a steam engine on a small stage with a limited budget, but The Fordingbridge Players did a pretty good job of pulling it off in their production of The Railway Children. 
The Burgate School drama studio was transformed into a railway station, a cottage and a tunnel as a predominantly young cast brought their heart-warming adaptation of E Nesbit’s classic to the stage.
Under the narration of Perks the station master, the audience watched as Bobby, Phyllis and Peter Westbury were uprooted from their comfy life and home in London to move to a small cottage in the Yorkshire countryside. Here, longing for news of their father, but wary of upsetting their mother, they fill their days along by the railway line, waving at the steam trains and making friends down at the station.
The children were the focal point of the play, not just the Westbury lot but the six young Perks offspring all getting stuck in with lots of lines and Yorkshire accents to take on board, too.
Nicki Salmond, was aptly cast as the saintly mother. Georgie Way was endearing as the exuberant Phyllis and Reid Hillwood conducted a few laughs with his overuse of the word ‘spiffing’ as Peter, the teasing brother.
But it was Ella Potter who had the biggest part to play as the oldest child Bobby, a wise head on young shoulders (famously played by Jenny Agutter in the 1970 film version), and she should be commended for a wonderfully convincing effort. I certainly had a lump in my throat in the final scene where she was reunited with her father.
Sarah Farr and Kate Short did a great job in directing this mainly youthful cast. With a basic set, much was left to the imagination, particularly the scene where the children had to stop the train after a landslide – clever use of a light projected through a hole in the wall and a smoke machine seemed to do the trick though.
It was not completely polished and there were quite a few prompts, which is understandable given the age of some of the children, but this did not deter from the entertainment and just served as a reminder that this is amateur theatre after all. The rapturous applause at the end was testament to the hard work put into this lovely little production and the youngsters should all feel very proud of themselves.
CHRISTINE STOCK