Deeping Market Model Railway Club Review – The Absurdities of British Life in Miniature | stage

Before the play begins, a compact LNER InterCity pulls up ahead of us. Our eyes follow him from one side of the stage to the other. The miniatures fascinate us, and the train reminds us of their appeal.

Which means that when we meet the old guys at the Market Deeping Model Railway Club, celebrating a second victory at the Stamford Regional Fair, we sympathize with their niche hobby. Yes, it may be strange to spend years perfecting an OO scale propulsion energy reservoir, but look at the details and have fun!

William Ivory’s comedy is inspired by a traumatic incident that occurred in 2019, when four young men burst into the school hall at Welland Academy only to find a model railway exhibit. For laughs, they smashed it.

Combining the camaraderie between the Calendar Girls and the goofiness of Dad’s Army, the playwright doesn’t hide the men’s nerdy obsession, but establishes their quiet devotion in a way that shows the life-destroying impact of sabotage. To add gravitas to the comedic character, Ivory places the story in the context of Brexit, with Theresa May resigning and Boris Johnson promising to take back control. Where should these enthusiasts, whose motto is “Pullman, not politics,” draw the line between nostalgia for steam engines and suspicion of foreigners? If building a replica of a railway seems particularly British, or a quaint throwback to the boy’s past, what chance is there of bringing modernity to this Lincolnshire market town?

If the argument is too heavy for this gentle tale to carry, the stellar cast never makes it seem so. Under the direction of Adam Benford, the seven men, plus Lucy Briers as the club’s secretary and catalyst for emotional expression, paint an endearing portrait of people bonded over a shared passion.

All veteran actors, they know how to deliver a joke, whether it’s Adrian Scarborough as a boss who sticks rigidly to the rule book, Paul Bradley as an old-timer who mixes his medications, or Babatunde Aliche as the new kid who faces a blank stare when he explains that these medications have gone viral on social media.

The ripples are simple, but the play is N-scale fun.