'All Change' Act 2 Scene 7 - The Trent Dispatches.
ACT TWO
Scene 7 : The Trent Dispatches.
The conflict between McConnell and Moon, between profit and engineering pride, is symbolised in the story of the Trent Dispatches.
The Rev. Awdry collated three different accounts of the historic train run and discerned the truth about it, at odds with what looked like a biased press release from Moon to the Times.
This sequence was difficult to visualise and interpret for the theatre, until Arthur Grigg, a veteran driver of steam locomotives, recreated in words a steam locomotive’s journey from Stafford to Euston. The journey, he described in detail, mile by mile even including the changes in the weather. He was also there on stage, to guide the actors on exactly how the engines would be driven and fired.
The actors were advised by Peter Cheeseman to alter the way they were miming the actions, to move away from the manner of Marcel Marceau, making visible what is not there, and focus the audience’s attention rather on what could be seen. The emphasis shifted from handling the controls and tools to the men’s physical effort, in face, shoulders, arms, and backs. The result was that the scene conveyed the pace, excitement and momentum of the train ride.
As the choruses were sung, the action focused on the vigorous mime of the train crews.
The Board meeting, which contained a minute that was offensive to McConnell and led to his resignation, was recorded among the minutes at the British Transport Record Office.
(Descriptions adapted from the script notes in ‘All Change’ booklet – 1977).
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