Carrie's War

Adaptor Emma Reeves and director Andrew Loudon, the team behind syrupy productions of 'Anne of Green Gables' and 'Little Women', are back with their version of Nina Bawden's 1973 novel about two wartime refugees. Thankfully, they are a little less liberal with the sugar this time. But their staging is still stymied by a plodding literalism that drains the story of excitement and tension.

Carrie and her brother are billeted in a Welsh village with grumpy God-fearing Mr Evans (Sion Tudor Owen, shamelessly hammy). A visit to Evans's estranged sister, the mysterious Mrs Gotobed (an underpowered Prunella Scales) stirs up family secrets, and introduces the children to her witchy housekeeper. It's a tale that demands a more imaginative approach than this one, which feels old-fashioned, unadventurous and unexceptional.