Windlesham House 7

There is a happy land

Far, far away,

Where they have bread and jam

Three times a day.

Oh, how the angels yell

When they hear the dinner bell…

Yes, I can still remember some of the lyrics from Peter Nixon’s superb production, Say Goodbye to Satchwell Road. 

Unlike The Rocking Horse Winner, this was a play for children, about children and with children. Its central theme, the evacuation of children from London during the Second World War, was perhaps a bit too close to the bone for some pupils at a boarding school, but this did mean that the boys and girls in the cast could understand and relate to the play.

As usual, Peter had written the play himself and I suspect incorporated a lot of material from the WW2 era. There was a strange mixture of humour and sadness, hope and despair. 

Perhaps in some ways this mirrored the reality of leaving your home and moving to the countryside, a heart-wrenching transition that also brought new opportunities and unusual experiences for many children from large cities.

One of the charming features of the play was the older children acting as the parents of the younger ones. George Venning was excellent as the crusty old colonel and Sammy Daniels was brilliant as a brassy tart. Chloe was great as the no-nonsense schoolmistress and her younger brothers also put in great performances.

I seem to have written rather a lot about plays at Windlesham. WHS was (and probably still is) a rather theatrical school, in many ways, and in this respect it was very different to Perrott Hill. With Say Goodbye to Satchwell Road, I saw Windlesham at its best.