Mary Reid

As I write there are only three performances left of 'The Ragged Child' at the Rose Theatre - if you possibly can, try to see this exhilarating production. It's on today and tomorrow at 2.30pm and also this evening at 7.30pm.

I would have written about this earlier about this but I missed my chance because of the server downtime. I had seen previous productions of 'The Ragged Child', but finally saw this one at the Rose yesterday evening.

This is music theatre of the highest order - brilliant staging, robust singing and enthusiastic acting.

And yet it's theme could not be more serious, nor more topical.

In the 1840s Lord Shaftesbury campaigned for the poor in our cities, ravaged by ill-health, homelessness and lack of work; he supported the Ragged Schools, which taught basic literacy and skills, and an emigration programme that gave those locked into destitution a means of escape.

The attitudes of the ruling classes ("It's their own fault if they are poor") have many echoes today, especially in the West's response to poor developing nations. 

(By the way, I've 'acquired' the photo from the Rose Theatre site - I hope they don't mind)

But what makes this play, and its production here, so special is its local origins.  Frank Whately and David Nield were both teaching drama and music respectively at Tiffin, when they started working on this idea with Jeremy James Taylor. All three had been key movers in the creation of the National Youth Music Theatre some years earlier, and several of the NYMT productions were first developed at the school.

I remember seeing the first performance of 'The Ragged Child' at Tiffin in 1986. The lead character, Joe, was played by Jonny Lee Miller, then about 13 years old, but now a well-established actor - he played Sick Boy in 'Trainspotting' and was even considered as the new James Bond before landing the lead part in an American TV series.

Jonny Lee Miller (then just known as Jonny Miller) went on to play the lead in the National Youth Music Theatre production of the play, which took it to the Edinburgh Festival and Sadler's Wells, and was seen in a Christmas Eve BBC broadcast. 

I took my son along to Sadler's Wells as a couple of his friends were in it. I remember being very struck by a young actor playing a number of minor roles, including the elder son of Lord Shaftesbury. It was only last year that I came across the programme (I have a collection of theatre programmes going back to the 1960s), and realised who it was - Jude Law, who is, in my view, one of our very best screen actors.

Back to the current show. Frank Whately and David Nield have been leading figures in the Rose Theatre. David has now retired from teaching and took himself off travelling for a year, so resigned as a theatre trustee, but is still a very significant figure. Frank is now Head of the Performance and Screen Studies School at Kingston University, and was instrumental in developing the close ties between the University and the Theatre.

So it was a wonderful idea to produce the play here again with a local cast.  Adults are played by University students, and auditions were held for local children to play the many child roles. Frank directed with his co-writer Jeremy James Taylor; David, who wrote all the music, directed the music with John Pearson, another former Kingston teacher. The lighting (which is excellent) is designed by Richard House, another trustee of the Rose.

And an actor to watch for the future? - my money's on Xavier Velastin who played the young villain, Leary.