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A superb musical theatre adaptation of E. Nesbit's quintessentially English classic. An idyllic family Christmas in an affluent London suburb is interrupted by a knock at the door. Affable Station Master, Mr Perk’s, recounts the story of a young Edwardian family, whose lives have been irrevocably changed by a set of unforeseen circumstances. When Foreign Office Civil Servant, Charles Waterbury is imprisoned for selling state secrets, his wife up-sticks, moving her children to Three Chimneys Cottage, Somerset. Discovering a railway near their new home is just the beginning of a series of adventures for the Westbury Children Roberta (Bobbie), Peter and young Phyllis. The Railway becomes the source of friendships, love, dramas and reunifications, as the Westbury family embed themselves in the heart of their new community, fighting for justice and to clear their family name. Julian Woolford's and Richard John's musical brings a masterful emotional depth to this rite of passage story, that follows the story’s protagonist Bobbie as she transitions from an innocent youth to a responsible, politicised adult. Woolford and John’s adaptation features heartfelt ballads, stirring choral numbers and tuneful melodies. Notes for Schools Thank you for booking to see The Railway Children at The Brewhouse Theatre and Arts Centre this Christmas. This resource is to support your visit to our show, and provide you with additional creative and cross-curricular ideas to enhance your teaching. It is put together with teachers in mind and we hope it will inspire your lessons in the lead up to watching. There are 5 sections: 1. Before the show: With notes about the themes in the book and musical, a scene break down, introductions to the cast and creative team. 2. Christmas art project: information about our Christmas card art installation and how you can get involved. 3. Workshops you can book: arrange a visit from our Assistant Director or visit West Somerset Railway. 4. Watching the show: Questions to help students consider all the elements of production whilst watching the show. Hopefully helping to maximise their understanding and enjoyment. 5. After the show: Suggestions for reviewing the show, developing your group’s critical appreciation skills. We hope you enjoy your visit, please do stay in touch to find out about future opportunities for schools at The Brewhouse. Dion Saunders, Take Part Manager at The Brewhouse Before the show: Book, film, musical Edith Nesbit first published The Railway Children in 1905 in serial form in The London Magazine and based it around her childhood when she had lived at Penshurst in Kent. She later wrote that those years were the happiest in her childhood. The opening paragraph of the book The Railway Children by E.Nesbit The book has been adapted for the screen several times, of which the 1970 film version is the best known. After the successful BBC dramatisation of 1968, the film rights were bought by the actor Lionel Jeffries, who wrote and directed the film, released in 1970. Jenny Agutter and Dinah Sheridan starred in the film. The music was composed, arranged and conducted by Johnny Douglas. Jenny Agutter says about the film, we cry when we watch it because we are mourning our own lost innocence. "You cry because of your sense of yearning. That is what is in her book and that is what Lionel so cleverly gives people. People cry at their own sense of loss, that they don't have that magic they had when they were little. You suddenly become that child again, believing in something that you feel you've lost." The lost father is a favourite Nesbit theme: her own father died when she was four and in her books she was always trying to get him back. Bobbie's cry at the end of The Railway Children - "Oh! My Daddy, my Daddy" - remains one of the most recognisable and touching lines in children's literature. You can watch a clip of the film here https://www.imdb.com/title/ The 1970 film, which stars Miss Agutter, tt0066279/videoplayer/ Bernard Cribbins and Dinah Sheridan. vi3123493401?ref_=tt_pv_vi_aiv_1 The Brewhouse are presenting the original 2005 the stage musical Music is by Richard John and book and lyrics by Julian Woolford. The score was recorded by TER/JAY records and the musical is published by Samuel French Ltd. The 1970 film poster Before the show: Edith Nesbit Imagine being one of the most well-loved children's authors, yet your readers don't know your real name. E. Nesbit is Edith Nesbit, who wrote an extraordinary 98 novels, plays and poetry collections for children and adults between 1885 and 1923. She is credited as the first modern writer for children whose work has influenced authors from Oscar Wilde to C.S. Lewis, Noël Coward to J.K. Rowling. Edith Nesbit was born in London in 1858. When she was four her father died but her mother continued to run the agricultural college which her husband, and before that, his father, had founded in Kennington, London. Edith had a sister, half sister and 3 brothers. She was educated on the continent when she accompanied her mother and sister Mary travelling throughout France, Germany and Spain. This was not a holiday but an attempt to get her sister well as she was suffering from tuberculosis. Upon their return to England Edith's mother moved the family from London to Halstead, Kent. This was the start of Edith's love of the countryside, a setting for many of her stories. The Railway Children reflects the unconventional life of its author Edith Nesbit. Money was always an issue for Nesbit as she had known poverty as a child and as a young married woman, even at the height of her success. In the book there is a tension between keeping up appearances and reality, particularly in Mother's desire to keep up an outward show so that outsiders remain unaware of the true extent of the family's poverty. However the real tension in her life was between what was expected of a respectable woman of the era and the realities of her life. Mother seems to be a self-portrait, but it was wishful thinking from Nesbit as she was far from a model of Victorian and Edwardian propriety. She was 19 years old and seven months pregnant with her eldest son Paul before she married the child's father, Hubert Bland. Even then the couple did not immediately live together, her husband preferring to remain in the comfort of his mother's home, leaving Nesbit to fend for herself. Like Mother she was forced to try and sell her stories and poems to earn an income. Eventually her diligence paid off when, in 1899, The Story of the Treasure Seekers, featuring the attempts of the déclassé Bastable children to restore the family fortunes, became a bestseller. Edith became a mother of five children, three her own Paul, Iris and Fabian, and two, Rosamund and John, she adopted in secret after her husband had an affair with a close friend Alice Hoatson (who subsequently lived with them). In 1900, Fabian had his tonsils removed. The doctor carried out the operation at the Blands’ home, Well Hall, in Eltham. The boy was given an anaesthetic and the doctor departed, but Fabian never woke up. He had choked on his own vomit as a result of his parents forgetting that he was forbidden from eating for 24 hours before the operation. Nesbit was inconsolable. It was after this sudden death that Edith wrote her bestsellers, stories that dramatically changed the course of children's literature. Edith and her husband both had numerous love affairs- she had a E. Nesbit bibliography (main books) succession of relationships with much younger men, as well as an unrequited 1899 The Story of the Treasure Seekers love for Bernard Shaw who was just 1901 The Wouldbegoods embarking on his career. After her 1902 Five Children husbands death in 1914 she found 1902 The Red House happiness with Tommy Tucker, a captain 1904 The Phoenix & the Carpet of the Woolwich Ferry, whom she 1904 The New Treasure Seekers married in 1917 and together they built a 1905 Oswald Bastable & others home at St Mary's Bay, Dymchurch, Kent 1906 The Story of the Amulet where in May 1924 Edith Nesbit died. 1906 The Railway Children 1907 The Enchanted Castle 1908 The House of Arden 1909 Harding’s Luck 1911 The Wonderful Garden 1912 The Magic World Edith Nesbit in her Well Hall 1913 Wet Magic home Before the show : Themes Golden Age of Children’s Literature This is a period dating from around 1880 to the early twentieth century. Today it’s regarded as a literary age that produced some of the finest works of art ever created for children's literature. A movement that, for the first time, focused on producing texts specifically oriented to appeal to children. Thousands of books were published annually during this period. Like so much of Golden Age children's literature, The Railway Children is a retreat, the celebration of the rural idyll of an England that never existed. It also presents an idealised view of childhood, in which unconstrained and adventurous children, prevent derailments and set in motion the wheels that allow their falsely incarcerated father to return home. Classic fiction provides useful sources of information for investigating the lives, beliefs and values of people in the past, The Railway Children could be a great starting point for a history project about Edwardian England. An Edwardian Christmas in England Only a decade long only, the reign of King Edward VII ran from 1901 to 1910.

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