Kindertransport

Malvern Theatre Worcester/Touring

2 Stars

Kindertransport, which deals with the last-minute rescue of 10,000 children from the nazis through the efforts of the Refugee Children's Movement, is showing its age.

Written 20 years ago by Diane Samuels, its theme of the life-long identity crisis of Evelyn who as a child - Eva - had been evacuated to Britain by her desperate Jewish-German parents is full of dramatic potential.

While older school students at the performance I attended may well have complemented their understanding of the turmoil of a war that blighted many lives both at the time and for future generations, the lacklustre production could have done nothing to inspire an enthusiasm for theatre's ability to give vivid reality to human experience.

Heightened emotional confrontations between the guilt-ridden Evelyn (Janet Dibley) and her student daughter Faith (Rosie Holden), demanding to know about her hidden family history, become shrill incoherent exchanges. Maggie Steed (pictured) as Lil, the heart-of-gold Mancunian who becomes a surrogate mother for Eva, was handicapped by a paroxysm of coughing.

Only Gabrielle Dempsey, revealing a sense of desperate resilience as the child Eva, captured a sense of the individual lost in a fearful moment in world history.

Attempts by the playwright to use time shifts and introduce a nightmare element through the character of the Ratcatcher, embodying the poisonous impact on the lives of even the lucky ones who escaped the Holocaust, sadly creaked.

Tour details: www.kindertransport.co.uk.

Gordon Parsons