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Pictures: Tim Morozzo.jpg The Naughty Carriage on the Orphan Train The Patrick Centre Birmingham Hippodrome **** The one thing we desire above all else is hope. A hope for a better future, a hope of survival, of safety, happiness, of even the basics of shelter, food . . . hope to be in a family and a home. A family was the hope of many of the 200,000 children shipped out of crowded East Coast cities in the USA to rural counties and Midwest states on the so called orphan trains between 1854 and 1929. To the philanthropists who supported the ventures it was to give the homeless, abandoned, abused children of the cities a healthier life with good Christian families in the rural heartlands. In reality less than half the children were orphans, indeed a quarter had both parents alive, and poor, or often non-existent vetting of prospective families meant a child’s better life could end up as abuse, discrimination and often as slave labour as domestics or farmhands. And it is into that chequered history that British Youth Music Theatre, in partnership with Birmingham Hippodrome, have created a poignant tale of a group of “orphans” full of hope, the hope of being chosen by the best family in the world and, it goes without saying, all the best families lived at the last stop on the line for the ones not chosen at all the stops in between.
Or was that just the dream they were clinging to, the sanctuary of hope, kept alive by Champ, the rebellious “orphan”, a magical performance by Blaize Middleton, who also sports a fine voice in her repertoire. Incidentally, although set in the USA, the production eschewed the idea of having everyone speak or sing with American accents, which, if one is honest, could have ended somewhere between distraction and disaster, instead everyone spoke as themselves which gave us a Champ from the Yorkshire end of the American dream. Champ was a great believer in everyone being themselves, not bowing down, or following the unwritten rules to be chosen as the train stopped for the children to be selected by waiting families almost like slave auctions. On the opposite side of how to be chosen was Apples, played by Eiry Shi, like Middleton, another excellent young actress with an already impressive CV. Her Appoline is a conservative voice on the train; don’t rock the boat, make yourself appear presentable, humble, grateful . . . whatever it takes to get chosen. Play the game by the unwritten rules and all will be well. The only problem being that that is not the first time Apples has been on the train, so her advice, guidance and encouragement, allied to her own less than stellar track record, are hardly a cast iron guarantee of success, but then there is always hope to fall back on.
The children are a mixed bunch, all shapes and sizes, all ages, all backrounds. We have Phoebe McFadden as Fidget and her sister Bridget played by Darcey Oswin, a fun pairing who came from, two, three, four . . . a theatrical background. An inseparable pair . . . except one sister was chosen but not the other, then there is Biscuit with a delightful logical mind in the hands of Romilly Gillis. Meanwhile, the ones who are chosen do not always find the life and family they hoped for. There is Norm, played by Ashton Davies-Beedles, a likeable lad, who followed Apples' guidance to get chosen only to end up being worked to death unpaid and unloved on a farm, and Evangeline, played by Lottie Keevil, who ends up not as a welcomed daughter embraced by a loving family but as an overworked, domestic servant. Bruce, played by Nicholas Ladd is an exception . . . and also a deception after Apples, breaking her own rules, sets him up as Richard Castle, a kidnap victim, supposedly now found safe and alive on the train to be reunited with his loving parents. It is a lie but gives Bruce a loving, and luxurious, home with parents who perhaps are afraid to accept what must have been an obvious lie, seeing a possible, even pretend son being better than the more probable . . . too awful to contemplate. When the end of the line finally arrives so many children have already been dumped there that no family can take any more – the promised best families in the world just don’t exist, best or not, they are full to bustin' with orphans. Champ’s words of hope were just that, hope. The dregs of the once hopeful children are packed back on the train, in the single remaining carriage, the naughty carriage, the carriage of kids nobody wants, to be shipped back to the city where they came from, until Champ once more gives them hope, a mass break out setting out to find the children chosen and left living a harsh life of servitude, rescue them and set up their own society, their own family, living on their wits, the children who are not! Fanciful perhaps, but there is a real happy ending as well, one for Apples and Champ to give the perfomance its own touch of hope. The musical is a joyous explosion of young talent from this company of 11 to 21-year-olds with many having already taken their first steps in a professional career. They can sing and act and the director, Emily Gray, has done a wonderful job of controlling a large cast, 36 or so, to work as a coherent whole rather than look like a football crowd flooding out of a match. Never easy with a big cast filling a stage. Everyone had a place, a purpose and a role with some technically demanding choreography (Ash Mukherjee) and movement for such a large group. Gray, incidentally, is also the chief executive of BYMT. The set from Claire Nicoll is dominated by the train stage rear looking like an agricultural polytunnel without a cover, deceptively simple and oh so effective, allowing the young cast to tell their story. Holly Ellis’s lighting adds to the drama while the script from Carl Miller and songs from Miller and musical director and composer Luke Saydon, with an excellent five piece band, give us a coherent story with some fine songs including a heartfelt duet between Champ and Apples as both find their hopes dashed. It is a sad story, but told with joy, hope and no shortage of talent by a wonderful young cast, The train runs at Birmingham Hippodrome to 27-04-25. Roger Clarke 25-04-25 |
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