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mass of children's faces. All the children of the ' village have amassed themselves in front of the barn door to stop the arrest (FOLLOW! FOLLOW! FOLLOW HIM!). They resolutely refuse to move and link arms. Suddenly a policeman notices that smoke is pouring out of the barn's roof and raises the alarm (THE FIRE). Despite the fire the children huddle calmly and defiantly together. When the fire has been extinguished, Dad ushers his children into the gutted interior where there is no sign of The Man. There is, however, something Dad wants them to see and he shines his torch on to a large cross which has been painted on the wall. The children realise that this is The Man's goodbye and that he is now finally free. (HYMN - Reprise). About The Staging Whistle Down The Wind on stage largely follows the pattern set by the film and is extremely episodic. It is vital that the telling of the story is not halted for scene changes - they must be swift. My advice is to keep it simple and rely heavily on lighting. A stone cross war memorial will suggest the village; a table, chairs and perhaps a dresser on an open stage "closed-down" with lighting is more than enough for the kitchen. The original production used a three-sided truck, one side of which was on hinges and could be opened. It was the hinged side that contained within it the barn door - when this side of the truck was closed we were outside the barn and when it was open, inside the barn. The truck could also be wheeled round to show other sides for the Sunday School etc. The barn was collapsible so that it looked like a skeleton of rafters for the final scene, but there are simpler ways of convincing the audience of the fire - just strike the hay, props and agricultural paraphernalia you might be using as set dressing. For the big production numbers, which are set in a variety of simultaneous locations, use a lot of cues, bouncing at the appropriate moments from one area to another to define the street, the church, the Sunday School stage etc. The young cast members must act and sing like real children caught up in a story they accept with a natural innocence and faith. Cathy must establish herself as the leader of the "Disciples" and must be an actress capable of the emotional outpourings at the end of the play. The Man should be an attractive actor with both charm and menace - he must be believable as both a murderer and Jesus Christ. At no time in the play is the audience told, one way or the other, if The Man is the convict or Christ. Providing the "Disciples" are not too holy, knowing or artificial they will be convincing. After two years of touring the original production not a single member of the audience ever said to me that they didn't believe that the children would believe the man in the barn was Jesus. I'm convinced that is the way to make this great story hold its magic. Russell Labey ABOUT THE MUSIC From the outset I wanted the music to have a definite role in the piece. I was never interested in simply slotting songs into the screenplay from the film, since they would never have felt truly integrated into the whole, and would have broken up rather than forwarded the narrative. The music had to add a new dimension all of its own, as well as being part of the very fabric of the piece, so this could become not just the novel or film onstage, but the third telling of the story, as distinct and apart from these previous versions as they are from each other. As a result, the music is used to help distinguish the world in which the children of the story live from that of their parents. Often the youngsters, especially the three main characters of Cathy, Nan and Charles, unquestioningly sing amongst themselves as naturally as they talk, but never to anyone outside their "group". And the same may be said of the adults. They are of two different worlds, each with their own secret language, seemingly unconnectable until, that is, the chasm is bridged by the stranger in the barn. There are few "songs" as such, though the music hardly stops, rather the sung passages are tightly interwoven with the spoken libretto in an attempt to allow the story to unfold naturally and effortlessly, and also almost to remove the conscious awareness of when a character is singing. Speech and song should blend into one. Richard Taylor

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