The Olivier Award-winning production of Mike Kenny’s stage adaptation of E. Nesbit’s novel The Railway Children – Live on Stage will be extending its run at King’s Cross Theatre by a further three months until Sunday 10 April 2016 due to popular demand. Tickets for the new period are now on sale.
The Railway Children opened at the King’s Cross Theatre to critical and public acclaim on 14 January this year, following previews from 16 December 2014.
The producers of The Railway Children said of the extension, “We are thrilled to be steaming into our second sensational year at this wonderful venue.”
The cast of The Railway Children includes Martin Barrass as Mr Perks, Caroline Harker as Mother, Louisa Clein as Phyllis, Clare Corbett as Mrs Perks, Peter Gardiner as Doctor/Butler, Jack Hardwick as Peter, Mark Hawkins as Jim/District Super, Connie Hyde as Mrs Viney, Serena Manteghi as Bobbie, Blair Plant as Father/Schepansky, and Moray Treadwell as the Old Gentleman. Joining them are Lindsay Allen, Daniel Griffin, Megan Elizabeth Pitt and Alex Wingfield, plus a children’s ensemble made up of three teams of ten children aged between 9 and 15.
A purpose built 1,000-seat theatre, complete with a railway track and platforms, and with a state of the art air conditioning and heating system, was specially created for this production on King’s Boulevard, behind King’s Cross Station, a site which has been loaned to the production for the duration of the run by Google. The York Theatre Royal production, which is in association with the National Railway Museum, once again features a live steam locomotive and a vintage carriage, originally built in 1896.
The production at King’s Cross Theatre is in support of the Railway Children Charity that aims to help homeless and runaway children throughout the world, with £1 per ticket donated to the charity. To date, £335,000 has been raised by the theatre production since its West End debut in 2010.
Directed by Damian Cruden, the Artistic Director of York Theatre Royal, with design by Joanna Scotcher, lighting by Richard G. Jones, music by Christopher Madin and sound by Craig Vear, Mike Kenny’s adaptation of The Railway Children was first produced by York Theatre Royal at the National Railway Museum, York, where it enjoyed two sell-out and critically acclaimed seasons in 2008 and 2009. The production then opened at Waterloo Station in the former Eurostar terminal in July 2010, where it again played two critically acclaimed sell-out seasons and won the 2011 Olivier Award for Best Entertainment, before opening in Toronto in 2011 in a temporary theatre built at the base of CN Tower in Roundhouse Park.
The Railway Children tells the story of Bobbie, Peter and Phyllis, three children whose lives change dramatically when their father is mysteriously taken away. They move from London to a cottage in rural Yorkshire with their mother, where they befriend the local railway porter, Perks, and embark on a magical journey of discovery, friendship and adventure. But the mystery remains – where is Father, and is he ever coming back?
2016 marks the 110th anniversary of the publication of Edith Nesbit’s much loved classic children’s book The Railway Children, which has subsequently been adapted for the stage and screen, most famously in the 1970 film version directed by Lionel Jeffries and starring Jenny Agutter, Bernard Cribbins, Dinah Sheridan and Sally Thomsett.
The production is presented in London by Tristan Baker & Charlie Parsons for Runaway Entertainment, Oliver Royds for BOS Productions and Sue Scott Davison, in association with York Theatre Royal and the National Railway Museum.
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Photo: Johan Persson