A venue which attracts audiences from across the north west is on track for an exciting Christmas show, writes Eileen Jones

The latest adaptation of Edith Nesbit’s classic The Railway Children has played at the Railway Museum in York, and at Waterloo Station in London. No shortage of trains at those venues.

So it’s something of a challenge for director Ian Forrest, whose version will open at Keswick’s Theatre by the Lake next month, not least because the town’s station closed 40 years ago.

But The Railway Children without a train is unthinkable, and Ian promises: ‘There WILL be a train.’ How, and where, and in what dimension he won’t tell. The secret will prove a further incentive to draw audiences to this stunningly situated theatre.

Ian is currently directing rehearsals for the Christmas production, which has developed a tradition of its own over the years. When he took the reins at the old Century Theatre there was no Christmas show tradition.

‘I knew I didn’t want to do pantomime. I wanted to produce shows that would be suitable for all the family, while recognising that sometimes the audience can be made up of entirely adults.’

His choices have been winners - Alice in Wonderland, The Snow Queen, Wizard of Oz, The Borrowers, Wind in the Willows. Stories with a feel-good factor for the festive season.

‘I always thought The Railway Children would be a good Christmas show here. I love the way that this adaptation, by Mike Kenny, is done, the way that the three children tell the story to the audience. I love the energy and drive and vitality.’

First published in 1905, The Railway Children resonates with universal themes. The children are uprooted from a comfortable life and transported to a relatively primitive existence. They learn about sharing and helping others, and about the lives of people so different from their own, and all because of the absence of their father, wrongly imprisoned.

Ian was struck by the quality of the writing and the strength of Nesbit’s voice as a narrator. ‘It’s a great story, warm and family friendly.’ And, of course, famously featuring trains. ‘We could have done it without any scenery or set because the story is told well enough to take off in the audience’s imagination,’ says Ian. ‘But you don’t want a bare stage at Christmas. So we have got pieces of the set that come on and off, framed as a railway station, with signals and a footbridge and, yes, there WILL be a train.’

Ian, who travels into Keswick from his home at the top of the Eden Valley, is now part of the scenery at the Theatre by the Lake. He joined the Cumbria Theatre Trust which runs TBTL in time for the last season of the former Century Theatre, ‘and then we sat in a Portacabin in the car park while this was being built.’

This, the lakeside venue, with its caf� and gallery spaces, is actually the only new English regional producing theatre to have been built with National Lottery funding. It opened in August 1999, and has since produced and presented over 5,000 performances. The official opening ceremony was performed by the theatre’s President, Dame Judi Dench, and her late husband, Michael Williams, on 14 December 1999, and Ian Forrest directed the first production, Charley’s Aunt.

Ian is delighted with the way the theatre has built up a regular audience for the studio work. ‘It’s been an opportunity to offer a completely different choice, new works, regional premieres, scripts that have only been done once before in London.

‘Then there have been commissions, such as this year’s Roma and the Flannelettes by Richard Cameron, which has run alongside a small scale classic – Ibsen’s A Doll’s House – and a regional premiere, Colder than here. They have gone down really well. It’s been challenging, and some of the material hasn’t been easy, but it seems to have worked.’

The spring season gives the TBTL yet another challenge, and following in the tradition of Cumbrian heritage (Melvyn Bragg’s The Hired Man and The Maid of Buttermere) next spring will see the opening of a new production of Hugh Walpole’s classic Rogue Herries which is set in Borrowdale and Keswick.

Meanwhile, The Railway Children will be opening on December 1, Ian as director joined once again by the regular main house designer Martin John, responsible for the set and the costumes. And it’s only then that we’ll learn how a train is going to steam into Keswick.

The Railway Children runs from Dec 1 until Jan 19. There are no performances on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Box office: 017687 74411 or you can book online: www.theatrebythelake.com