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Designer Rodney Ford and director Bob Carlton have fun with inventive ways of creating different sets. The cast clearly enjoys their stylised performances. Even the audience gets involved and turned into a water chain for the Thunderbolt�s tank.
The comedy honours are shared. Droll Paul Leonard�s Mr Valentine, the pickled in alcohol, hearty elder statesman of the village, doubles as the lecherous bus entrepreneur Vernon Crump and a Hitler-style railway inspector. Steven Pinder, as the steam train obsessed vicar, delights in the fact that divine providence has given him the opportunity to drive a train. Both are definite scene stealers, but running a close second is Philip Reed as the Ministry of Transport enquiry chairman and a transvestite Mrs Bottomley. These three share a total belief and sincerity in their comedy performances.
Kate O�Mara is a horsey Lady of the Manor maintaining the status quo while Loveday Smith buzzes around and shouts a lot as all the young women, including brassy blonde Miss Tallulah Broadstairs, music hall �artiste�.
This inventive production entertains but a true period feeling for the early fifties is lacking - glaringly so in some of the costumes.
Mary Redman
The Stage - Friday 2nd September 2005
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