Goodnight Mister Tom (play)

Early in World War II, William Beech is billetted upon Tom Oakley in rural Dorset.[1] Oakley, a reclusive curmudgeon,[1] has been a solitary resident for 40 years since he became a widower and lost his infant son;[2] Beech is an illiterate, bruised, and starving Deptford evacuee.[2] Oakley nourishes Beech physically and emotionally until Beech's mother calls for his return to London.[2]

In the second act, Beech is back in Deptford as the Blitz continues around him.[2] With no father figure (his father had died several years earlier), his mother, "a militant Christian of the fire-and-brimstone variety," again influences his emotional demise as she abusively raises a "found" baby daughter.[2]

Goodnight Mister Tom premiered in 2011 at the Chichester Festival Theatre, directed by Angus Jackson.[2] The production moved to London with previews starting on November 22, 2012 and then ran for 9 weeks from November 27 until January 26, 2013 at the West End Phoenix Theatre, with Oliver Ford Davies as Tom Oakley, Ewan Harris and two other actors alternating as William Beech, and William Price as Zach.[3] Subsequently the production traveled throughout the United Kingdom to locations such as The Everyman Theatre,[4] Aylesbury Waterside Theatre,[5] and Birmingham's New Alexandra Theatre.[6] In December 2015, a new production of Goodnight Mister showed at the Duke of York's Theatre in London from December 2015 until February 2016.[7] The show will open again in London on 25 July 2018 to 25 August 2018, at the Southwark Playhouse. The production will star James Sampson and Eoin McKenna as Tom Oakley, with other cast including Millie Brolly, Ethan Quinn and Bradley Riches.[8]

The play won its nomination at the April 28, 2013 Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Entertainment.[9]

Michael Billington, after explaining that he had not read the source material, said that he was "struck by the story's debt to Oliver Twist: in both, a serially abused boy is rescued, and briefly lost, by a solitary senior." Billington praised the cast's performances and called the production "a strong seasonal show, unafraid to target the emotions."[1] Jane Shilling of The Daily Telegraph noted that "Ewan Harris as William touchingly conveys the flowering of the crushed child...but the show is stolen by William Price as Zach, whose outrageously over-the-top performance lights up the stage."[2]