Review: The Machine Gunners, Customs House, South Shields

by David Whetstone, The Journal

TYNESIDE-born author Robert Westall wrote The Machine Gunners in the 1970s and it has since become a set book in schools.

With a Nazi invasion seemingly imminent and worry lines on adult faces, exciting possibilities opened up for the scabby-kneed occupants of the nation’s playgrounds.

Along with Luftwaffe shrapnel to collect, there was the prospect of nights in shelters, houses blitzed and seeing neighbours like Mrs Spalding caught on the netty with knickers round ankles.

Exciting times indeed! And a massive bonus for the young heroes of the Westall story was the discovery of a machine gun on a piece of downed enemy plane.

Now the kids, led by likely lad Chaz McGill, had the chance to fight back when the jackboots came stomping up the street.

The musical version of The Machine Gunners, with script by Tom Kelly and Ken Reay, and songs by John Miles, opened here in 1998 and then went to Edinburgh.

Now comes this revival, directed by Gareth Hunter and with a mega-cast (by today’s standards) of 14 – plus a rabbit.

It opens against a vast map of Tyneside with Luftwaffe targets outlined in coloured crayon and newsreel footage of Spitfires taking off to period unflappable voiceover.

Neil Armstrong and Tracy Gillman play the McGills, preparing for what might be their last Christmas before Nazi occupation.

But it is Chaz and his classmates and fellow gang members who drive the action.

James Baxter, as the hyper-energetic Chaz, leads a cast of young adults playing the children, the boys resplendent in their shorts and tank tops. They plot, squabble, bully or are bullied and the gang members hole up in the woods with their machine gun and a German pilot, Rudi.

It’s a simple, engaging story in which the kids learn hard lessons about life and war. It doesn’t, however, for my money, lend itself particularly well to the musical treatment. I liked some of the songs but not all.

Some reminded me of those old concert party routines from It Ain’t Half Hot Mum, getting in the way of the action rather than speeding it along.

Among the stand-out performances are young Mr Baxter, Jamie Brown as Rudi and recent graduate Rachel Teate as tomboy Audrey.

Among the more seasoned cast members, Donald McBride, who plays three parts, always makes me laugh and the real live rabbit, “Jonesy”, never put a foot wrong.