Tom's Midnight Garden

THE cast of Tom’s Midnight Gardenare under an unenviable amount ofpressure.

Taking on Philippa Pearce’s classic tale?That’s some feat.

Since it was first published in 1958,generations of children have grown up withTom and Hatty as literary playmates. Theyare characters that lodge inside your head,pottering alongside you as you leap andbound from single figures into doubles,merging into your childhood as though theywere real friends; real adventures.

It’s touching, magical stuff that, like all thebest children’s stories, never quite leaves you.

Translating that into a 1 hour and 40 minuteproduction (including an interval), is morethan a challenge . . .

After stumbling upon a grandfather clockthat chimes 13 times, Tom finds himselfwhisked through time to a secret Victoriangarden locked away in the past.

Staying with his aunt and uncle in thepresent, under quarantine thanks to hismeasles ridden brother Peter, the garden –sunlit and beautiful sometimes, dark andstormy others – offers a night time escapefrom the drudgery of summer without hissibling.

There he meets Hatty, lonely like him,and together they embark on a tangle of afriendship, but Tom must work out this timetravelling business.

Adapted by David Wood and performedby the Birmingham Stage Company, it’s in

the same weepy children’s fiction cache asGoodnight Mr Tom, and no, you weren’t theonly one reduced to distraught tears by both.They quite rightly scar you for life.

Faithful to the book and constructed sothat even the youngest in the audience won’tbe tripped up by the slipping and sliding oftime, you are forced to imagine the garden,it’s twists and turns, vegetable patches andthe great old fir tree, wrought out of a set themorphs and winds with the ticking of theclock.

The costumes are exact, the live musicimpressive (they troop on stage with cellosand violins that saw at your heartstrings), andalthough it’s slightly strange having adults playchildren – it particularly gives Hatty’s unruly,spiteful cousins an even more malicious air –the cast are unerringly enthusiastic.

David Tute (Tom) stirs laughter and screwsup his face with confusion at the questionof time, while Caitlin Thorburn (Hatty)skitters and bounds across the stage, battlingphysically with the confines of Victorian rulesfor girls.

Together the pair captures something of thelooping friendship of Pearce’s heroes, the funof it and the pain of being divided by decadesand dreams, but sadly it doesn’t quite live upto the magic and the memory of the book.

26 | April 24, 2014 | cambridge-news.co.uk | Cambridge News

The critical list: more hot ticketsTheatreRound-up

� BUDDING directors, CambridgeshireFilm Consortium is running a new filmproduction workshop: Introductionto Filmmaking (21+). The six-weekcourse starts on Wednesday, April 30and there are still places if you’re keento learn the ins and outs of filming.You’ll get to grips with cameras andediting software, work with live actorsand learn the art of cinematographyand location shooting while makingtwo short films. The course costs £250.Contact Cambridge Arts Picturehouseon 08719025720 for details.

� THE Music in Quiet Places summerseries launches tomorrow at St Andrew’sChurch, Girton. The concert programme,which hosts classical evenings withinthe hushes confines of churches in andaround Cambridge, will begin with LaSerenissima at 7.30pm. German Baroqueviolinist Johann Georg Pisendel will bepaid tribute to through four virtuososonatas written by Vivaldi, Albinoni andMontanari. Tickets are £14 from (01223)357851.

� THE Cambridge Arts Picturehouse iswelcoming actor and director CrispinGlover to the city on Wednesday, April30. He’ll be attending a screening ofhis new film It Is Fine! Everything IsFine and presenting Crispin HellionGlover’s Big Slide Show, an hour longdramatic narration of his books, witha slideshow projected behind him.There’ll also be a Q&A and a booksigning. You’ll definitely be getting yourmoney’s worth. Tickets are £18 from08719025720 and the event starts at8pm.

� THERE’S an open stage tomorrownight at Cambridge Folk Club. Braveones can grab their guitars and warmup their vocal chords ahead of headlineact Saul Bailey. Saul plays the Englishconcertina and melodeon, switchingbetween English dance and folk music,as well as the odd bit of Morris dancing,as you do. Apparently he “found his lovefor folk music at the Cambridge FolkFestival, and once he’d started goingthere, his life was never quite the sameagain . . .” Entry is £4 on door. Check itout from 8pm at the Golden Hind.

� WRITTEN by Tom Stuchfield, TheAngel Rails is a dark exploration ofwhat happens when people takejustice into their own hands. Fourstrangers leave a courtroom havingwitnessed the driver of a train walkfree – they consider him the murdererresponsible for a rail disaster that haskilled their loved ones. Now it’s theirturn to go on the rampage. Tickets are£5-£6 (01223) 300085 and the showis on from Wednesday, April 30 untilSaturday, May 3. It starts at 11pm atthe ADC.

Review

Tom’s Midnight Garden

Follow us on Twitter@CamWhatsOn

Spring AwakeningANY play that caused riots isdefinitely one to see in ourbook.Spring Awakening, written byFrank Wedekind, did just thatwhen it first struck the stage in1906. Sadly, we expect this newversion, overhauled by directorBen Kidd and Anya Reiss (who’swon the Evening Standard andthe Critics’ Circle Awards forMost Promising Playwright),isn’t going to have peopleburning down the velvet curtainsor screaming abuse at the boxoffice staff.Then again, that’s probably agood thing. You don’t really

want to get distracted from theunnervingly dark and twistedlyfunny plot which sets out todiscover what hope teenagersand youngsters have in a worldrun by a generation that doesn’tunderstand them, and perhapsdoesn’t even care.It’s nothing if not utterly relevant– quarter-life crisis agogo.

� Spring Awakening, CambridgeArts Theatre, until Saturday,May 3 at 7.45pm. Tickets £15-£27 from (01223) 503333 /cambridgeartstheatre.purchase-tickets-online.co.uk.

� Tom’s Midnight Garden, Cambridge ArtsTheatre, until Saturday, April 26 at 7pm.Tickets £12.50-£17.50 from (01223) 503333 /cambridgeartstheatre.purchase-tickets-online.co.uk