Tom’s Midnight Garden (Manchester)

With the panto season in full swing, you’ll be hard pushed to find a regional theatre not housing stars from Big Brother or a soap opera shouting: “Behind You!” Not unless you live in Manchester where, I’m thrilled to report, the Library Theatre has something a bit more palatable up its sleeve.

Tom’s Midnight Garden is an enduring children’s classic which, although first published in 1958, still has a great deal to offer today’s “Nintendo” generation. Namely, the magical world that Tom (Ben Elliot) inhabits via his garden.

Quarantined, in order to avoid catching his brother’s measles, in the home of his aunt and uncle, Tom is fed up with endless cups of tea and longs for life outside of his relatives’ cosy surroundings. He ventures out the back door and into a world of wonder, dreams and wish-fulfilment. He’s whisked back to the 1800s where he meets a girl called Hatty (Kirsten Parker) and his adventures in the midnight garden truly begin.

Using the original children’s book, adapter David Wood assumes the audiences are newcomers to the text and provides them with little chunks of the narrative at a time. This works wonderfully as the sense of wonder is there at every turn.

Jamie Vartan‘s evocative designs featuring an old functional clock shaped floor and a tall tree house take you right back to your childhood, and Roger Haines directs with a steady hand, coaxing beautifully natural performances from the whole cast. Elliot and Parker both resist the urge to lapse into patronising “We Are Children” mode and truly convince as rounded “mini adults”.

As Tom’s aunt, Anne Fitzmorris manages to steal many scenes by battling with the mechanical set and, on the night I attended, ad-libbing with aplomb when a stubborn revolving door almost fell to the floor.

Pacy, witty, magical and at times incredibly poignant, this adaptation is a reminder of why the original was so loved in the first place. The Library audience – consisting of brownies, schoolchildren and their teachers – sat in complete awe for two hours. And so did I. If you’re in need of a real Christmas treat, I urge you to pay a visit to Tom’s Midnight Garden.

– Glenn Meads