Musicfest Aberystwyth brings Railway Children stage play to town

A stage adaptation of ‘The Railway Children’ is travelling to Aberystwyth as part of this year’s Musicfest.

The popular 1906 novel by Edith Nesbit was made into a TV series and a film, and now a stage adaptation is getting ready to steam on to the Aberystwyth Arts Centre stage.

The new performance inspired by the novel is coming to the arts centre for one night only, on Monday, 20 July at 7pm.

This is just the second performance of this show in the world, after its initial launch at Glyndebourne last summer where it received incredible reviews.

The Aberystwyth performance features the incredible performers from the Welsh National Opera, librettist Rachel Hewer, a cast of fantastic young performers and talented students from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff.

Iwan Teifion Davies, Artistic Director of Musicfest Aberystwyth and conductor of ‘The Railway Children’, said “Composer Mark-Anthony Turnage is one of the most distinguished composers in the world, and it’s a great honour for us to be bringing his opera performance of ‘The Railway Children’ to Wales as part of Musicfest this year.”

Speaking about the Making of ‘The Railway Children’, Mark-Anthony said: “I’ve added a few key moments, that are a bit mad, and they are definitely not in the book and the film. The way I define characters are by the different instrumental groups that they are being accompanied by. It’s an opera for children and adults, and I wanted it to be quite conversational.”

This year marks 39 years since the first Musicfest, Aberystwyth’s annual eight-day international music festival. It runs from 18-25 July.

The only festival of its kind in Wales combines world-class concerts and performances, a summer school and free activities.

Tickets for all Musicfest performances are available now. For more information and to book, call 01970 623232 or visit www.musicfestaberystwyth.org.