Goodnight Mister Tom, brought to life by David Wood's play, is based on the children's novel by Michelle Magorian. It tells the story of a young boy, William Beech, who is evacuated from London during the air raids of World War ll, and is placed in the care of an old curmudgeon Tom Oakley.
The story is twofold. The boy's journey and the man's, and how each of them is healed by the love and care they have for one another. Tom, isolated by the death of his young wife, Rachel, finds himself again, after forty years of rebuffing his fellow men. And William finds love and friendship, and a certain courage in his love for Tom. The scene was set straight away with the evacuees arriving at a small village in Dorset, singing chirpy, upbeat songs of the time, and showing a stiff upper lip. Poor William Beech, played by Joe Reynolds, comes from an abusive home and is quiet and withdrawn.
Tom Oakley, played fabulously by David Troughton, is forced to take in an evacuee. His abrupt manner hides a kindly nature, and he quickly sizes up William's situation. I think it is Tom's understated acceptance of how things are which evokes such strong feelings towards his character. David Troughton played the part with a real warmth. Then we have the wonderful puppeteer Elisa de Grey who provided a marvellously life-like rendering of Tom's dog Sammy. It snuffled, barked, wagged its tail, and at one point ate vomit. Amazing.
Another evacuee, Zach (Sonny Kirby) is everything William isn't. Outgoing, extrovert, enjoys being centre of attention, and the pair make a strange bonding when they become best friends. My only criticism was that sometimes the sound didn't pick up the boy's speech well enough and they could have faced the audience more, especially in the case of the young Zach, who was a lively, entertaining boy.
Life in the village came across well as did the London scenes. The use of song was worked in very cleverly. The story had many lights and shades, and was not afraid to show the less savoury aspects to life. It had more than one dark twist weaving its way through the plot and hit the audience hard when they least expected it. The pacing was fast and the story unfolded like the petals of a rose, just showing enough to tantalise before another layer showed something else entirely.
The ending was satisfying without over-sentimentality, and managed to bring a lump to the throat and a tear to the eye.