At their best, adaptations of novels add some welcome theatrical imagination to the mix (for example, War Horse or Shared Experience’s The Mill on the Floss). In contrast, Novel Theatre’s uninspiring work swamps the stage in too much scenery. The book in this case is Nina Bawden’s classic children’s story, in which well-brought-up Carrie and Nick are evacuated from London during the second world war and taken to a Welsh mining village. There they stay with Bible-bashing Mr Evans and his sister, the more emollient Auntie Lou. Evans’s other sister (a very wobbly performance from Prunella Scales) lives, like Miss Havisham, in a mystical place called Druid’s Bottom. It’s a classic formula — take the children away from their parents and let them fend for themselves. As Carrie, Sarah Edwardson lifts the occasional eyebrow as she learns to negotiate family feuds and hypocrisy, while Nick stuffs himself with all the food he can get. Emma Reeves’s adaptation reaches a moving climax, but that’s more to do with the quality of the book than with Andrew Loudon’s production.

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