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Carrie’s War a highly satisfying play to see
CARRIE'S WAR
Sadler’s Wells
LOVERS of Nina Bawden’s affecting tale of World War II evacuees will not be disappointed by Emma Reeve’s stage adaptation, which retains all the warmth and mystery of the origjnal.
Aimed at the older child, it neatly condenses the book’s necessarily slow moving plot into an absorbing two-and-half hour production, with strong performances all round.
The two children’s roles are played by adults and, rather like the main protagionist herself, Sarah Edwardson’s Carrie steadily grows into her role as the child who, forced to live with strangers hundreds of miles away from home, has to be mum to bewildered younger brother Nick (Mark Field).
Sion Tudor Owen is excellent as the tyrannical Mr Evans, the shop keeper who reluctantly agrees to take the evacuees in, as is Rachel Isaac as his downtrodden younger sister.
Luckily the children find a warm refuge in Hepzibah Green (Amanda Symonds), the eccentric ‘wise woman’ who cares for Mr Evans’ estranged older sister, and disabled handyman Mr Johnny (James Beddard).
It is Hepzibah’s strange tale of the African slave boy’s skull on the library shelf that draws the children into a mystery and turns the play into a ghost story, although we are never really quite sure.
The book’s Welsh setting is beaituflly evoked by an ensemble choir, while wartime radio broadcasts and music recordings take care of the era.
Edward Lipscomb makes judicious use of the space with his doll’s house-style stage design, combinging two of the principle households, with the eerie glade of Druid’s Bottom as its backdrop.
All in all, a highly satisfying piece of theatre.
Until Jan 7
0870 737 7737 |
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