Archive: This review was first published on May 9, 2013 by the Daily Post
When 14-year-old Ronnie Winslow is expelled from the Royal Naval College for stealing a five shilling postal order, the lives of almost everybody in his family are touched by the repercussions in this astonishingly involving and well-staged play.
It is 1914 when Ronnie is sent home to his gruff father with a letter detailing his crime, although the timid student denies he did anything wrong. Father Arthur Winslow decides his family will not take this lying down and opts to take the Admiralty to court to clear his son's name.
You might think that a two-hour play about a stolen postal order and a court case (which incidentally, we never witness) isn't the most riveting slice of entertainment, but far from it. The Winslow Boy is one of the very best productions I have seen at the Mold theatre, in part due to the well-structured, engrossing story by playwright Terence Rattigan, but also thanks to the mesmerising and utterly convincing performances from the cast.
